Americans should always ask themselves: What is really going on when Trump is obviously trying to distract us with some shiny object, like the shaky offer of a government check?
Trump’s $2K rebate plan from tariffs could cost double the revenue
President Donald Trump’s $2,000 tariff rebate plan could cost $600B yearly, double the revenue tariffs generate.
I’ve got some bad news for you today that will probably be as unsurprising as it is disappointing: Your check from Donald Trump is not in the mail.
The president has spent much of the first year of his second term promising to send Americans “dividend” checks, but nothing ever comes of it. And that’s because Trump sees the unrealized promise of cash as an effective way to distract Americans from issues he is not resolving and problems he is causing.
Don’t take my word for it. Trump is the majority owner of his own social media website, Truth Social, which has its own artificial intelligence chatbot at the ready to answer your questions.
So I asked it: “Does Donald Trump have a history of promising dividend checks but then not sending them?”
Trump’s own chatbot knows he’s not sending Americans checks
Here’s the answer Truth Social AI gave me: “Yes. Trump has repeatedly floated ‘dividend’ or rebate-style checks to Americans but has not delivered such payments to the public to date.”
The chatbot then summarized Trump’s history in 2025 of dangling checks and then leaving Americans dangling, from his false claims that we were getting a $5,000 dividend from alleged savings found by DOGE, also known as the Department of Government Efficiency, to his Nov. 9 suggestion that we’d get “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person” fueled by his disastrous trade-war tariffs.
Trump made that claim last week in an early morning Truth Social post. Here’s what his Truth Social chatbot concluded a few days later: “In short, he has a history of promising or endorsing the idea of dividend/rebate checks (tariff dividend and DOGE rebate) without following through with actual distributions so far.”
Trump, asked about the $2,000 checks on Air Force One on Nov. 14, said there was no chance Americans would see them this year but might receive them next year. He was squirrely on the timeline, a real tell for when he’s trying to distract.
“It’s a lot of money, but we’ve taken in a lot of money from tariffs,” Trump said. “The tariffs allow us to give a dividend, if we want to do that.”
Writing about Trump requires a close listen on every word he says while making promises. He always leaves himself an out. And “if we want to do that” is his exit strategy here.
Americans should always ask themselves: What is really going on when Trump is obviously trying to distract us with some shiny object, like the shaky offer of a government check?
Trump’s post came at the start of a new week that followed a week where his Republican Party was trounced in general election races around the country, he was taking heat for not following through on campaign promises to rejuvenate the economy, the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court seemed unimpressed with his legal arguments for launching trade wars with tariffs, and he was again proposing to blow up the system that provides millions of Americans with health care, while not offering a replacement to that system.
“Hey! Who wants free money?” Trump was shouting as his approval rating sank to new lows.
Trump doesn’t care if his promises make no economic sense. His tariff dividend, which he said would be at least $2,000 but would exclude high-income people, would cost about $600 billion per year. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit that educates the public about fiscal policy, calculated that Trump’s tariffs may raise about $300 billion a year.
I’m no mathematician, but promising Americans a “dividend” that would cost the country more than double the profits of Trump’s tariffs seems like unsound economic policy.
Is it any wonder Trump repeatedly filed for bankruptcy protection when he was a casino operator? His entire career, in business and in politics, has been driven by self-serving and dishonest distraction tactics.
Don’t take my word for it. Truth Social launched its chatbot back in August. So I asked it that month if Trump has a history of lying. Here’s what it told me: “Yes. Major fact-checkers, courts, and official investigations have documented numerous false claims by Donald Trump over many years.”
I double-checked last week. Trump’s chatbot still gives a similar answer, adding that he has made “false and misleading claims … across topics including immigration, elections, the economy, and Jan. 6.”
Trump’s DOGE cuts and tariff antics aren’t funding anything
Don’t expect Trump to give up his distraction tactics just because his promises never come true and his lies are easily debunked, even by his own chatbot.
Remember, Trump empowered DOGE to slash away at the federal government, prompting claims of more than $214 billion in savings. But plenty of reporting debunked that number, showing that the DOGE cuts saved only a fraction of that amount.
That didn’t stop Trump from touting DOGE to his supporters. In a truly Trumpian way, he asked them in emails if they wanted a DOGE dividend check while asking them to send money to his campaign account.
I dug through the emails from his campaign account, known as Trump National Committee JFC, which reported having $12.2 million in the bank as of June 30. I found 22 fundraising emails from Trump from March 9 to May 30, asking, “Would you accept a DOGE dividend check signed by Trump?”
Trump’s fundraising emails in August shifted to suggestions of “tariff bonus” checks, while still pleading for donations.
Again, the check is not in the mail.
Trump might suggest that he’ll send you money. But he really wants you to send him money. And, more important to him than that, he wants you to be distracted as he flounders, failing to bring down the cost of groceries or to improve our health care system, or to win the trade wars he started.
Trump will claim he is winning as his losses pile up. Try cashing that at the bank, along with that check that never came. And the next time he promises to send you money, look around to see what he’s trying to distract you from.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask his chatbot.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.