US President Donald Trump promised middle and low-income Americans “at least $2,000” in tariff dividends in a Sunday 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. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high-income people!) will be paid to everyone,” Trump wrote.
He did not clarify when the checks would be sent or how citizens would receive them.
While the federal government collected around $195 billion in customs revenue according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the government still might not have enough money to cover the checks.
CNN reported that even if 150 million adults applied, it would still cost the US government $300 billion, far short of the money reaped by the tariffs.
Trump did say he’d exclude citizens in the high-income bracket, but didn’t say where that cutoff would start.
It’s worth noting that Trump has booted the idea of dividend checks before. In August, he said that the US is “taking in so much money that we may very well make a dividend to the people of America,” according to CNN.
Trump’s announcement comes as the Supreme Court of the United States is set to rule on a lower court ruling that Trump’s mass tariff package is illegal.
Trump says, US could face - 'economic and national security disaster'
Trump said Monday that the United States would face an economic and national security disaster if the Supreme Court ruled against his use of an emergency powers law to impose sweeping tariffs against nearly every country.
During last week's oral arguments on the tariff case, Supreme Court justices cast doubt on Trump's authority to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which contains no references to tariffs.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested it "could be a mess" for the courts to administer refunds to US importers who have paid tariffs that were declared illegal. It remains unclear exactly when the highest court will rule, and whether companies will be entitled to refunds of more than $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs paid so far if Trump loses.
Trump said in a Monday social media post that if the court ruled against him, it would be impossible to return the funds lost.
“The US Supreme Court was given the wrong numbers,” Trump wrote. “The ‘unwind’ in the event of a negative decision on tariffs, would be, including investments made, to be made, and return of funds, in excess of 3 Trillion Dollars. It would not be possible to ever make up for that kind of a ‘drubbing.’ That would truly become an insurmountable National Security Event, and devastating to the future of our Country - Possibly non-sustainable!”