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President Trump announced on Sunday that most Americans will receive “at least” $2,000 from the tariff revenue collected by the Trump administration.
Trump’s statement, made early Sunday on his Truth Social platform, comes after the White House defended his sweeping use of tariffs before the Supreme Court this past week, where the justices appeared skeptical of the president’s broad use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Trump’s public musing about Americans pocketing $2,000 from his tariff revenue also comes after Democrats emerged victorious in races across the country in last week’s elections. From more moderate to more progressive candidates, Democrats ran disciplined campaigns focused on affordability and cost of living.
Here’s what to know about Trump’s $2,000 tariff check proposal:
What Trump has said about the checks
Trump touted his tariffs Sunday morning, saying those who oppose them are “FOOLS” and that the revenue generated from the import tax on foreign goods will soon begin paying down the country’s debt and put money directly in people’s pockets.
“People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
“We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place,” he continued. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
Trump floated the idea of giving Americans checks, worth somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000, in an interview on One America News Network last month.
“We’re going to do something, we’re looking at something. Number one, we’re paying down debt. Because people have allowed the debt to go crazy,” Trump said at the time. “We’ll pay back debt, but we also might make a distribution to the people, almost like a dividend to the people of America.”
In an interview Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told host George Stephanopoulos that he hasn’t spoken to Trump yet about his proposal but that “the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways” that do not just resemble direct stimulus checks.
“It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda,” Bessent said. “You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Deductibility of auto loans.”
“So, you know, those are substantial deductions that, you know, are being financed in the tax bill,” Bessent added.
Who qualifies for the dividends
Trump has not specified who would qualify for the dividend, although he said “everyone,” except “high-income people,” would be paid at least $2,000 in the form of a dividend.
The White House and Treasury Department did not respond to questions about what income levels would be precluded from receiving the dividends and whether children would be entitled to the same dividends. The administration also did not say how much the dividends would cost the country.
During the pandemic, Congress passed three rounds of stimulus checks, two of which were signed into law by Trump during his first administration.
The first round, in March 2020, gave $1,200 to each tax filer and $500 per child. The second round, in December 2020, gave $600 to each tax filer and $600 per child. The third round, signed into law by former President Biden in March 2021, gave each tax filer $1,400, or $2,800 for married couples, with $1,400 per child or dependent.
For the two rounds of stimulus checks that Trump signed into law, individuals making up to $75,000 a year and married couples making up to $150,000 were eligible for the full amount of payments. Americans whose incomes surpassed that threshold were entitled to reduced payments, up to a point.
The Internal Revenue Service said more than 476 million payments were made, totaling $814 billion in financial relief during the pandemic.
How much revenue do tariffs generate
In his interview on ABC News on Sunday, the Treasury Department secretary insisted that the primary goal of the tariffs is not to generate revenue, which falls under Congress’s purview, but rather to address what the administration sees as unfair trade imbalances.
“It’s not about taking in the revenue, it’s about rebalancing,” Bessent said. “And the revenue occurs early on. And then as we rebalance and the jobs come home, then it becomes domestic tax revenue.”
However, the tariffs have already generated billions of dollars in revenue.
Through September, the government raised $195 billion in revenue from the tariffs, which are taxes on foreign goods that companies pay when importing products overseas.
That represents a 250 percent increase, or an additional $118 billion, compared with what the government collected in tariffs the previous year, in fiscal 2024.
The tariffs are expected to generate roughly $3 trillion over the next decade, according to data from the Treasury Department.
