Trump promises to send $2,000 tariff dividend checks \u2018probably the middle of next year, a little bit later than that\u2019
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President Donald Trump promised on Monday that his administration will begin issuing $2,000 \u201ctariff dividend\u201d checks to Americans around the middle of 2026, the most specific timetable he has offered yet on a proposal that can\u2019t seem to find a home within a campaign-esque promise, economic argument and political provocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be issuing dividends later on, somewhere prior to \u2026 probably the middle of next year, a little bit later than that,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, according to Axios<\/a>. The payments, he said, would go to \u201cindividuals of moderate income, middle income.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commitment marks an escalation from Trump\u2019s earlier, vaguer assertions that tariffs are generating enough money to fund direct payments to American households. But turning the idea into actual checks is far more complicated than his easy-going rhetoric suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made that clear over the weekend, saying on\u00a0Fox<\/a>\u00a0News that the administration \u201cneeds legislation\u201d to distribute any such dividend.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will see,\u201d he added. Bessent also implied that the structure could take forms other than a check \u2014 for instance, a tax rebate \u2014 signaling uncertainty inside the administration about what Trump\u2019s proposal even is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The math is another obstacle. A $2,000-per-person dividend, even if limited to Americans with low or middle incomes, would cost well over the $200 billion that Trump\u2019s tariffs have brought in.If the checks resembled the COVID-era stimulus structure \u2014 which went to adults and children alike\u2014 the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates\u00a0the price tag could reach $600 billion. That would mean that Trump\u2019s tariffs would be a net $400 billion negative for the U.S. in 2026, based on current projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the future of that revenue is itself uncertain. The Supreme Court is expected to rule within months on whether Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs by invoking national emergency powers. So far, both conservative and liberal supreme court justices have\u00a0seemed skeptical of his arguments. If the Court rules against him, the administration may have to somehow refund billions in collected duties to importers, which would be the opposite of Trump\u2019s promised \u201cdividend.\u201d Trump argues the stakes are existential, claiming a loss could cost the U.S. $3 trillion in refunds and lost investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House did not immediately respond to Fortune\u2019s<\/em> request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Trump continues to present tariffs as an all-purpose economic engine: a way to protect U.S. factories, pressure foreign governments, strengthen the federal budget, and now, finance what he has described as a populist windfall. Trump and the Republican party broadly have been focused\u00a0<\/a>on winning voters\u2019 favor back on \u201caffordability\u201d ever since Democrats\u2019 swept elections earlier this month. The President even said on Friday that he would roll back tariffs on beef, coffee, tropical fruits\u00a0and commodities, even as he continues to insist that tariffs don\u2019t raise prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAffordability is a lie when used by the Dems. It is a complete CON JOB,\u201d he wrote Friday on Truth Social.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump promises to send $2,000 tariff dividend checks \u2018probably the middle of next year, a little bit later<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}