President Donald Trump elaborated on his plan to provide Americans with $2,000 checks from revenue from his wide-ranging tariffs that sparked global trade tensions earlier this year.
“We’re going to issue a dividend to our middle-income people and lower-income people, about $2,000. And we’re going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt,” he said while speaking to the media in the Oval Office on Monday.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Treasury Department via email on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
Trump’s proposal to hand out $2,000 from tariff revenue to Americans has not been confirmed by his administration.
He has repeatedly touted his tariffs as highly lucrative and beneficial to the country, though his claim that they have already generated “trillions” is overstated, and some analysts say they will be costly to American households.
What To Know
Trump announced the plan to distribute tariff revenue to Americans on Truth Social on November 9.
In his comments on Monday he clarified that the dividends of roughly $2,000 per person would go to lower- and middle- income Americans.
While the president said that “high-income people” would not receive the checks, he did not specify who would be classed as high income.
Trump said that after the checks were handed over, the rest of the money would be used to reduce the national debt.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News on November 9 that he had not spoken to Trump about the dividends, but that these could take the form of tax cuts which had already been promised.
The president claimed on Monday that “trillions of dollars” have been generated in revenue through his tariffs.
The government raised $195 billion in tariff revenue through September, not the trillions Trump claimed.
The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D. C-based think tank, predicted that the Trump-imposed tariffs will raise $2.4 trillion in revenue over the next decade. When factoring in negative economic effects due to foreign retaliation, this estimation drops to $1.8 trillion.
Erica York, the Tax Foundation’s vice president of federal tax policy, previously noted that the current tariff revenues would not cover the dividends Trump proposes.
Even after excluding high-income earners, which she classed as people earning over $100,000, Trump’s proposed $2,000 tariff dividend would cost nearly $300 billion, more than the tariffs have so far generated.
Analysts have previously noted that the tariffs could increase costs for Americans. One projection from the Tax Policy Center estimates that the tariffs could cost the average household up to $2,600 in 2026.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on November 9: “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. 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.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News on November 9: “I haven’t spoken to the president about this yet, but, you know, it could—the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms,” adding: “It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda. You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans.”
What Happens Next
So far, the proposed $2,000 dividends have only been spoken about by Trump. His administration has not released any details about how, and if, this plan will go forward.
