“China … pays the tariffs, not our people.”
The statement: In remarks on August 1, 2019, President Trump said China was paying the tariffs and that they did not cost American consumers.
What the record shows
Tariffs on imported goods are assessed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and paid by the importer of record. That directly contradicts the claim that China, as a government, remits the tariff to the U.S. Treasury.
The broader economic incidence is more complicated: an importer may absorb part of the cost, pass it to customers, change suppliers or negotiate lower prices with a foreign producer. That does not change who legally pays the duty at entry.
Finding: False
The statement confuses the possible economic effects of tariffs with the party legally responsible for paying the U.S. duty. Its additional categorical claim that American consumers were unaffected was not supported by the structure of the tariff.