Trump says there's a 'real chance' tariffs could replace income tax

President Donald Trump said in an interview airing Tuesday with Fox News' Rachel Campos-Duffy that there was a "real chance" tariffs could replace income tax.

"There's a real chance," Trump said. "There is a chance that the money from tariffs could be so great that it would replace. You know, in the old days, about 1870 to 1913, the tariffs were the only form of money. And that's when our nation was relatively the richest. We were the richest."

The president said during the interview that there was a committee formed in the 1880s to "get rid of money."

"And this committee's sole purpose was how to dispose of it, who to give it to, what do we do? And then, brilliantly, in 1913, they went to the income tax system. Then around 1931 or 1932, they tried to bring back tariffs, but it was too late," the president told Campos-Duffy. "And they loved to blame tariffs for the Great Depression. But the Great Depression came before they put the tariffs on."

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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The president was also asked about how much money the country was making from the tariffs. 

"Billions and billions of dollars and, hundreds of billions of dollars over a period of a year. Before I gave a little bit of a pause to lower just a little bit because, you know, it's a transition. You have to be, you have to have a little flexibility. But we were making two billion and three billion dollars a day. We never made money like that," the president said.

The president also said during the interview that he is open to sending violent American criminals to El Salvador prisons.

"He's made it a very safe place," Trump said of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whom he welcomed to the White House on Monday. "People go, and they feel very secure and safe. He's also built one but also other prisons. Very big ones, and we're using his system because we're getting rid of our criminals from out of the United States that were allowed to come in by Biden."

President Donald Trump sits down for interview with Rachel Campos-Duffy on Fox Noticias.  (Fox News)

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When asked by Duffy if the prison could be used for "our own violent criminals," Trump replied that it was possible, saying it could be implemented for what he referred to as "homegrown" offenders.

The full interview with Trump will air Tuesday afternoon on Fox Noticias at 4 p.m. ET. 

Trump put a 90-day pause on reciprocal, customized tariffs he had imposed on dozens of nations on Wednesday, which was an abrupt change of course after saying there would not be a pause to them, just negotiations. Simultaneously, the Trump administration upped the ante on its tariff on China to 125%. 

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The administration, including Trump, is diving into negotiations with foreign nations to strike deals that are beneficial to the U.S. and lower the country's chronic trade deficit, according to officials. The tariffs have roiled markets and triggered concerns of a possible recession.

Fox News' Emma Colton and David Rutz contributed to this report.