Donald Trump has been lying to the American people for months about who pays for the tariffs that he has placed on most products being imported into the United States. On Sunday night, he finally came clean… albeit inadvertently.

Either because he doesn’t know better or because he wants to deceive Americans, the president has steadfastly claimed that it is “other countries” who pay for the tariffs. Unfortunately for US businesses and consumers, that is incorrect. In reality, it is the importing company that pays the tariff and, in many cases, then passes all or part of that additional cost on to its customers.

Granted, it is possible that the exporting companies will absorb some of the tariff burden by lowering the cost of its products. However, it’s definitely not foreign governments who give the United States billions and trillions of dollars, as Trump would have people believe.

He tried to do so again in a social media post on Sunday night. However, this time, he spilled the beans on who really pays the price for his tariffs.

“Despite the massive amount of money being made by the United States of America, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, as a direct result of Tariffs being charged to other countries, the full benefit of the Tariffs has not yet been calculated,” Trump wrote.

So far, so good.

This is the false claim he keeps making to avoid getting blamed for the higher prices Americans have to pay for everything, from groceries to the homes they are building, because of Trump’s tariffs.

In the very same sentence, however, the president then admits to who really ends up holding the bag.

“Many of the buyers of goods and products, in order to avoid paying the Tariffs in the short term, ‘STOCK UP’ by purchasing far more inventory than they can use,” he added.

And there you have it!

Finally, Trump put the “truth” in “Truth Social” (although we are quite sure he didn’t mean to).

By the president’s own admission, it is the buyers of goods and products, i.e., the importing company (and ultimately the consumer), that is trying to avoid paying the tariffs.

This shouldn’t be an issue if foreign countries and businesses were actually the ones on the hook for that cost.

After his involuntary admission, Trump then proclaimed that “the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received,” and added that “these payments will be RECORD SETTING, and put our Nation on a new and unprecedented course.”

This is partially true. Yes, the amount of money the US takes in from the tariffs will soar, but that is money either coming out of the pockets of consumers or the bottom line of US businesses.

He is also correct in predicting that the tariffs will put the nation on an unprecedented course, because never before in history has a president tried to torpedo the economy so thoroughly with tariffs.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time this month that Trump has admitted that his policies force US consumers to pay more for the things they need.

Ten days ago, he lowered the tariffs on a wide range of agricultural products to reduce crushing food prices… only a few days after Democrats running on a platform of reducing the cost of living for Americans scored decisive election victories across the country.

To their credit, this is an area in which voters don’t believe Trump’s lies.

In a new poll, nearly three-quarters of Americans (including more than half of Republicans) said the president’s tariffs are increasing the prices of the things they buy.

However, it seems unlikely that any of this will cause Trump to abandon his beloved tariffs.

The Supreme Court might put an end to them, though. It will soon release a decision on whether the made-up emergencies the president relied on to put in place the tariffs are even legal.

That is why Trump, who isn’t exactly subtle, also had a message for the justices (and anybody else who isn’t buying into his rhetoric:

“Those opposing us are serving hostile foreign interests that are not aligned with the success, safety and prosperity of the USA,” he wrote. “They couldn’t care less about us. I look so much forward to the United States Supreme Court’s decision on this urgent and time sensitive matter so that we can continue, in an uninterrupted manner to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Based on the oral arguments in the case, he may want to curb his enthusiasm.

Then again, the Supreme court has shown extraordinary deference to Trump, so maybe the right-wing majority will allow him to keep throttling the economy and burdening consumers with higher prices.