Tariff rebate checks for Americans worth $2,000 each are still on the agenda, according to President Donald Trump, but they may be coming months later than previously thought. Trump also believes he may not need an OK from Congress to send the checks, potentially making it easier to overcome lawmaker opposition to the program.
“That’s coming in, that I’ll be able to do $2,000 sometime. I would say toward the end of the year,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday.
In early November, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he would distribute a $2,000 tariff “dividend” to Americans from the revenues generated by tariffs. Trump has said that the tariff rebate checks would be restricted to low- and middle-income earners, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has speculated could be limited to people with incomes of no more than $100,000.Â
Trump in mid-November told reporters that the checks would be issued “somewhere prior to probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that.”
Tariff rebate checks would directly put cash into household budgets, potentially boosting consumer spending and providing a lift to the economy.
Trump Says Tariffs Bringing in More Than Reports Indicate
With the introduction of several new tariffs last year, including a sweeping round of ”reciprocal tariffs” in August, revenues from import taxes more than doubled to come in at $216 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But economists have said that the tariff rebate checks would likely cost more than that, with projections ranging from $279 billion to $600 billion, depending on how the checks are distributed.
Trump has said that tariffs are bringing in more than is being reported. During his interview with The New York Times, Trump argued that tariffs are also generating economic growth that is not being looked at by economists.Â
“We have taken in, and will soon be receiving, more than 600 Billion Dollars in Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 5.
Some economists believe Trump is also counting the investments that some foreign countries have promised to the U.S. during tariff negotiations.Â
“We’ve heard of these investment pledges that, you know, a country might invest a hundred billion or three hundred billion into the U.S. economy. That of course would be private sector investment, very different from tax collections that flow to the Treasury,” Erica York, vice president at the Tax Foundation, told PBS News Hour in November.
Trump Says Checks May Not Need Congressional Approval
The price of the program, at a time when the national debt exceeds $38 trillion, has led some lawmakers to question whether the tariff rebate checks should be issued. They’ve argued that revenues instead should be used to lower the budget deficit.
During his interview with The New York Times, Trump downplayed concerns that Congress could keep the checks from going out.
“No, I don’t believe we do. We have it coming in from other sources,” Trump said when asked if he would need approval from Congress for the tariff rebate checks.
The comment would contradict statements made by other White House officials who have said that Congress would need to act on the tariff rebate checks.Â
“That’s going to depend on what happens with Congress. Congress is going to have to send those money to those peoples,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CBS News on Dec. 21.
The rebate checks could also be affected by an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on tariffs, which could strike down some of the tariffs and potentially put the funding source for the checks in jeopardy.