Trump plans to establish a new agency called the ‘External Revenue Service’ to gather revenue from tariffs.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump revealed plans on Tuesday to establish a new organization named the External Revenue Service to gather tariffs and additional incomes from foreign countries.

“We will initiate charging those benefiting from us through Trade, and they will commence payments,” Trump announced on Tuesday through his social media platform, Truth Social. He drew a parallel between his proposed agency and the Internal Revenue Service, which functions as the primary national tax collector.

The creation of a new agency requires an act of Congress, and Republicans hold the majority of both the House and the Senate.

Trump, who has committed to reducing government size, would be establishing a fresh entity to perform tasks already executed by current agencies, such as the Commerce Department and the Customs and Border Patrol, responsible for levying duties and incomes from other countries.

The president-elect has tapped two business titans to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what he calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House.

Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are leading the DOGE’s ambitious efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

Tariffs, with the threat of a potential 25% levy on all goods from allies like Canada and Mexico and 60% on goods from China, have become a benchmark of Trump’s economic agenda as he heads into his second term.

Economists have said the cost of the tariffs will be passed on to consumers, and are generally skeptical of them, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.

Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticize the External Revenue Service plan.

“No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump is planning a multi-trillion-dollar tax hike on American families and small businesses to pay for another round of tax handouts to the rich,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.