In a rare moment of good journalism on cable news TV, MSNBC Eugene Robinson patiently went through how Trump tariffs are imposed, forcing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to admit that US importers pay for the tariffs and not the exporters.

As Republicans try to claim the US is receiving billions of dollars from the tariffs, it's coming from mostly US companies forced to pay them.

Since many of Trump's economic advisors hide out on Fox News and such, Bessent finally got asked pertinent questions that he couldn't claim were fake on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

ROBINSON: Mr. Secretary, there's one question I've got to ask you, because there has been some confusion. So we've got a tariff of, what, 50% on Brazil now, I think.

And so if someone here, an importer, wants to buy Brazilian products today or tomorrow and import them, they're going to pay 50% to the Treasury.

And so who writes that check?

BESSENT: Well, a couple of things. First we could have substitutions. So there's very little that only comes from Brazil. It could come from Argentina, it could come from—

ROBINSON: But assuming it does come from Brazil, say, or it comes from any country with a tariff, who writes the check to the Treasury?

BESSENT: Well, the check is written to the person who receives it at the dock in the U.S.

ROBINSON: The check is written by the person who receives it at the dock, so the tariff is paid in this country by the importer.

BESSENT: But the Brazilian exporter could decide that they want to keep market share.

They could lower their price so that the full 50% of the tariff, say—

Right.

ROBINSON: They could eat part of the tariff, too.

Yes.

BESSENT: Which is what we've seen.

Uh-huh.

ROBINDON: OK. OK. But the check is written by the importer, right, at the dock.

Yeah.

BESSENT: And then, you know, the importer can pass it on or not.

Since many of the tariffs haven't been implemented or any trade deals actually executed, the Trump administration is running a Ponzi scheme on the American people.

Their only hope is that foreign exporters will eat his high and insane tariffs (which they won't). If they don't, US importers will bear the burden and that eventually will be passed on to consumers.

It's not rocket science or a Schrödinger equation. It's basic math.