President Donald J. Trump, riding high after a string of decisive victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, took to the White House briefing room in a wide-ranging press conference where he celebrated what he called a “massive vindication” of his tariff-first trade strategy—and he had the numbers to back it up.

Standing before reporters with the confidence of a man who knows he’s reshaping global economics, President Trump torched critics of his tariff policy and revealed a bombshell: $88 billion collected in tariffs—just from China and other trading partners.

When asked about a sudden reversal by a global economist who now supports the Trump tariff plan, the president was visibly energized.

“I love this. I love this question. This is the favorite. This is the best question I’ve ever been asked because I’ve been going through abuse for years on this. Because, as you know, we’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, no inflation whatsoever,” he said.

Critics, particularly in the media and among the D.C. elite, have long claimed that Trump’s tariffs would crash the economy. But President Trump says the exact opposite happened—and the proof is in the cash flow.

“I think they should go back to business school. It’s so obvious. It’s so obvious. I mean, we’re taking in billions and billions of dollars from China and a lot of other countries,” he continued.

He went on to recount a revealing exchange with a high-ranking House official.

“I had a call from somebody in the House, a high official. ‘Sir, we have a problem. We don’t know what to do. The books are a mess.’ I said, ‘what do you mean by the books?’… ‘The books, the money, the money coming in is so terrible.’ I figured, oh boy, what’s this? I don’t like this question. I said, ‘so what?’ … ‘There’s so much money coming in and there must be some kind of an accounting mistake because we have hundreds of billions of dollars more money than we thought.’ I said, ‘do me a favor. Go check the call me back. You have to call me back. Check the tariff column.’ Calls me back two hours later. ‘You’re right. We took in 88 billion in tariffs.’”

But for President Trump, it’s not just about the revenue—it’s about economic revival on American soil.

“They have so much money coming in, but more important than the money coming in. We have companies coming in, factories coming in, auto plants being built. AI is being built here instead of being built all over Europe and Asia. We have all of it,” he said.

In typical Trump fashion, the president highlighted his sweeping economic influence by referencing foreign investment and American manufacturing.

“We have over 15 trillion dollars, just about, Scott. I think we’re right about that number. We went to Saudi Arabia. We went to Qatar. We went to UAE. Very smart people, very smart leaders, great leaders. And we took in 5.1 trillion dollars just there without the tariffs.”

He also gave a nod to what he dubbed “a very good little period of time”—the presidential election—referring to his historic second-term victory, which he credits for boosting international confidence in American trade power.

“They also like the thing called November 5th, November 6th and November 7th. That was a very good little period of time. It’s called the presidential election. You know, you used to have one-day election. Now you have it over days. But even if you just took that little period because it was pretty obvious it was going to be a landslide. But they like that. But they love the tariffs.”

President Trump also revealed a recent meeting with Texas Instruments, signaling continued investment in the U.S. economy.

“I had Texas Instruments come in the other day. Big company. And they said, ‘we’re putting in 60 billion dollars into new plants and new equipment, new everything. Sir, you’re going to keep the tariffs, aren’t you?’”

His answer was unequivocal:

“But if somebody got elected, they’re afraid that this was taken off. Well, we’re going to guarantee it’s never going to be taken off.”

As the press conference concluded, one message rang loud and clear: tariffs are here to stay, and so is the Trump economic boom.