President Trump vowed to issue tariff dividends sometime before the 2026 midterms during an Oval Office event touting his administration’s work bringing the FIFA World Cup to the US.
“We’re gonna be issuing dividends later on, somewhere prior to — the middle of next year, a little bit later than that,” he said, noting it would include “Thousands of dollars, for individuals of moderate income.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously revealed that the proposed $2,000 tariff dividend checks for American citizens would be awarded, but noted that the idea was only “in discussion.”
Bessent said that the payments “could come in lots of forms,” including as “just the tax decreases that we are seeing” following cuts made in the Big Beautiful Bill.
Around the same time, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
Bessent also floated a rough income limit of $100,000 that would disqualify higher income families from receiving the dividend.
“Everything is on the table. That would be for working families. We will have an income limit,” Bessent assured.
Trump and Bessent haven’t elaborated on any plans surrounding the dividends beyond the updated timeline.
The remittance would require approval from Congress, where even the president’s own Republican allies have expressed skepticism and encouraged Trump to focus on decreasing the federal budget deficit instead.
“It’ll never pass. We have a $37 trillion debt,” Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told reporters in July, according to Business Insider.
As of November, the debt has surpassed $38 trillion, according to the US Department of Treasury.
Trump originally announced his grand plan while the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments on the legality of his sweeping tariffs against a majority of foreign countries – including some the US have rarely collaborated with.
The president has repeatedly said that the tariffs are bringing in “trillions of dollars” to federal government coffers.
If the Supreme Court strike down Trump’s tariffs, his administration may have to provide refunds for the tarriffs the US has already collected.
