1. Command

$ npx news trump-18-trillion-tariffs --debug-level=max --force-facts

2. Output

>>> Initializing npx-news-interpreter v3.1.2...

>>> Fetching article: "Trump Says Tariffs Have Brought in $18 Trillion. That's Impossible."

>>> Parsing context: U.S. President Donald J. Trump (Dec 2025)

INFO: Factual Updates

INFO: President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed tariffs generated $18 trillion.

INFO: This figure was cited during a cabinet meeting (Dec 2), to reporters (Dec 3), a Politico interview (Dec 8), and even during a Rwanda-DRC peace treaty announcement (Dec 4).

INFO: On Sunday, Trump reiterated, "we've taken in more than $18 trillion."

WARN: Data Anomalies & Misinterpretations

WARN: Data anomaly detected: The federal government collected $236 billion in tariffs and duties over 11 months.

This data comes directly from Treasury Department reports.

DEBUG: While representing a "huge increase" in tariff collections, $236 billion still falls short of "trillions" by several orders of magnitude.

DEBUG: Future projections from the Yale Budget Lab estimate $2.3 trillion over the next decade, which is still nowhere near $18 trillion.

ERROR: Logical Impossibility Detected

ERROR: Logical absurdity detected. The U.S. imported approximately $3.3 trillion of goods last year.

ERROR: To yield $18 trillion in tariff revenue, an approximate 600% tax rate on imports would be required.

ERROR: Such an extreme rate would effectively reduce imports (and thus revenue) to zero.

WARN: The President's terminology, "we took in," blurs the line between government tax revenue and private investments.

DEBUG: Private investments cited by the White House's "Trump effect" website currently total $9.6 trillion, not the claimed $18 trillion.

DEBUG: The significant discrepancy between $9.6 trillion and $18 trillion remains unexplained.

DEBUG: Possible causes include arithmetic overflow, a string-to-integer conversion error, or perhaps simply user input error.

3. Stacktrace (If This News Were Code)

ERROR: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot convert 'fantastical' to 'numeric_value'

    at Function.calculateTariffRevenue(economicPolicy.js:64:9)

    at Object.reportFinancials(presidentialBriefing.js:12:4)

    at Object.broadcastStatement(publicRelations.js:20:1)

    at <anonymous>:1:1

Caused by:

    Attempted to assign '18,000,000,000,000' to a 'billion_int' type.

    RangeError: Value '18e12' out of representable range for expected actual revenue.

    Expected: ~2.36e11 (from Treasury.gov)

    Received: ~1.8e13 (from unknown_source.txt)

Segmentation fault? Unexpected behavior? Panic!

Core dump initiated due to logical fallacy in critical financial reporting function.

4. Patch Notes

• - Fixed: Public perception of tariff efficacy requires rigorous data validation.
• - WARN: tariff_revenue_reporting module exhibits inconsistent behavior across various public interfaces.
• - DEPRECATED: Direct manual input of financial figures by the PRESIDENT role without TREASURY_COMMITTEE approval.
• - ADDED: Mandatory fact_check() hook before any public financial statement.
• - DEBUG: Humans still struggle with large numbers and abstract economic concepts like "trillions."
• - IMPACT: Public confidence in economic data metrics may be fluctuating due to these discrepancies.