President Donald Trump took a victory lap after announcing that the Treasury Department brought in a record-breaking $16.3 billion in duties from customs in April.

The Treasury Department's massive collection was up by $7.6 billion from the previous month, demonstrating that Trump's focus on customs fees as a source of income for the federal government is going well. 

With the imposition of significant tariffs on dozens of foreign trading partners, including Canada and Mexico, the customs fees have skyrocketed, and the Trump administration is hoping to use this income to lower tax burdens on Americans.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year last October, the U.S. has collected $63.3 billion in customs duties.

This period includes a significant amount of time prior to Trump assuming office, suggesting that customs duties could be in the hundreds of billions annually.

Massive win for Trump

Trump is racing against the clock to balance the federal budget and increase sources of revenue while decreasing costs without increasing taxes on already overburdened Americans.

The U.S.'s total surplus for April was $258 billion, an increase of 23% from the same period a year ago, which is big progress for Trump. This also proves the viability of using customs fees on imported goods to increase revenue to the federal government.

However, costs are also up as the U.S. has a $1.05 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year. Much of this is due to the massive expenditures through social safety nets like Social Security and numerous healthcare initiatives.

Unfortunately, Republicans in the House and Senate, as well as Democrats, will never agree to cuts to social safety nets, which will likely lead to serious backlash from voters who are reliant on those systems.

This has left Trump in a tight spot with few options to cut costs and get ahead of the rising costs that the federal government incurred under the former Biden administration.

The Biden administration spent untold sums of money, leading to hyperinflation and further exacerbating the looming debt crisis. However, this report is some much-needed good news in an otherwise bleak financial outlook.

Crushing debt

The national debt is at an astounding $36 trillion, and interest on that debt is on its way to being the largest annual expenditure in the budget, even surpassing military spending.

Alongside Trump's changes to trade with foreign nations, Trump has also instituted massive cuts to the federal government. However, mass layoffs and shuttering useless government agencies is hardly keeping Trump ahead of rising interest debt.

There are no easy solutions for Trump to tackle the debt crisis, but if anyone has a shot at fixing this situation, it's the man who grew a billion-dollar real estate empire.

Of course, Trump has to contend with cowardly Republicans and hostile Democrats in navigating this crisis.