President Trump renewed his pitch to send $2,000 tariff rebate checks to American citizens – even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemingly threw cold water on the idea.
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said the funds raised from tariffs will be used to send a $2,000 “dividend” to Americans, “not including high income people.”
But later in the day, during an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Bessent tempered those claims – explaining that the “dividend” could come via the tax cuts from Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
“I haven’t spoken to the president about this yet, but…the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways, George,” Bessent said.
“It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda,” he continued.
“You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Deductibility of auto loans.”
Though Bessent appeared noncommittal, Trump doubled down on the idea on Monday.
“All money left over from the $2000 payments made to low and middle income USA Citizens…will be used to SUBSTANTIALLY PAY DOWN NATIONAL DEBT,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump’s promise to send out tariff checks, however, comes as those very tariffs are in flux.
The Supreme Court last week heard arguments that could toss out many of the president’s signature tariffs – forcing him to refund more than $100 billion.
Trump has said a tariff reversal would be a “disaster” for the country, arguing the import taxes are an essential national security measure.
In particular, the case hinges on a slew of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs – steep rates of 10% to 50% on many nations that he unveiled during a press conference in April.
Trump has argued the tariffs are necessary to make up for an egregious national trade deficit.
Bessent told ABC News on Sunday that “the real goal of tariffs is to rebalance trade and make it more fair.”
Now the Supreme Court is looking into whether Trump overstepped his authority to enact the tariffs.
If the court finds the tariffs effectively operate as taxes, then they are at risk of being overturned, since taxes are required to pass through Congress.
In that case, the Trump administration will be forced to return that money to businesses instead of setting it aside for stimulus checks.
American importers pay the tariffs on imported goods, but recent inflation reports show companies have started to pass along these costs to the consumer in the form of price hikes.
By the end of the year, consumers are expected to bear the brunt of tariff costs, according to Goldman Sachs economists.
The Trump administration has so far collected more than $220 billion in tariff revenue, according to the US Treasury. But it’s unclear if this will be enough to cover the $2,000 checks.
Trump said he would exclude wealthy Americans from receiving the stimulus checks, but he did not specify where that cut-off will fall.
It would cost approximately $326 billion to hand out $2,000 checks to American citizens without any exemptions, according to a CNN report.
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