Trump Says ‘All Americans’ Will Share in Tarriff Revenue to the Tune of 2K

President Trump Donald Trump said on Sunday that each American will receive at least $2,000 from tariff revenue collected by the administration.

“A dividend of at $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. He added that those against the tariffs are “FOOLS!”

Such a proposal would likely need to be passed by Congress. This summer, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) introduced legislation to give $600 tariff rebates to nearly all Americans and their dependent children.

“My legislation would allow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump’s tariffs are returning to this country,” Hawley said at the time.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, though, told CNBC in August that the administration’s priority is paying down the $38.12 trillion national debt using the tariff revenue.

On Sunday, Trump also said that the administration would pay down the “ENORMOUS” debt using tariff revenue. Although, the president provided no details on who exactly would be eligible, or when the payments might go out. 

But Bessent explained to ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the tariff dividends might not be direct payments.

“The $2,000 divided could come in lots of forms,” Bessent said. “It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing.”

The president added that the tariffs have brought in “trillions of dollars” and that 401(k) accounts are the “Highest EVER”. He also claimed there was “No Inflation” from the duties.

The US collected about $151 billion from import duties between April and October, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 

Bessent said he expected the US to collect $500 billion or more in tariff revenue per year. For context, a pandemic-era proposal to send $2,000 checks to families was estimated to cost some $464 billion, according to the CRFB. 

It’s not clear whether Trump’s tariff dividend would use the same parameters as the COVID-19 relief measures did. 

Trump has flirted with the idea of tariff dividends in the past, but his recent musing comes in the wake of a Democratic sweep in blue state elections last Tuesday in which affordability issues loomed large.

GOP lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have largely shown little interest in green-lighting direct payments to Americans.

It’ll never pass,” Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), whom Vice President JD Vance backed in a primary contest last year, bluntly told reporters in July, according to Business Insider. “We have a $37 trillion debt.”