Trump Promised That Most Americans Will Receive "At Least" $2K in Tariff Revenue

There are few political policies more popular than sending people money, and few politicians know that better than Donald Trump. The president recently posted a statement suggesting that the revenue from the tariffs he's imposed on many countries would be sent directly to the American people.

Following Trump's statement, many people wanted to know whether a check would actually be coming their way. Here's what we know about those stimulus checks, and how much they would be for.

In the Truth Social post, Trump said, "people that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER. We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place."

He continued, writing, "a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone."

Previously, though, when checks were sent out to the American people, the stimulus had been approved by Congress. It's unclear whether Trump is planning to go to Congress with this proposal or whether he instead plans to try to circumvent the legislative branch in order to send money out directly.

In an interview with One America News in October, Trump floated a similar proposal, although at that time he said the payment would be between $1,000 and $2,000. “We’re going to do something, we’re looking at something. Number one, we’re paying down debt. Because people have allowed the debt to go crazy,” Trump said at the time. “We’ll pay back debt, but we also might make a distribution to the people, almost like a dividend to the people of America.”

Trump also has not clarified who exactly would qualify for these stimulus payments, or whether the tariffs have actually brought in enough revenue to pay for them.

Trump's post comes days after the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case suggesting that Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs. Although the justices have generally been quite favorable to Trump, they seemed skeptical of his authority to impose these tariffs unilaterally.

It's possible, then, that Trump is making this argument because he wants to make the tariffs seem more palatable on the whole. For now, though, Trump's post is just that. It's not policy yet, and he hasn't articulated what levers he plans to pull in order to get people relief payments.

What is clear is that tariffs often operate as a tax on the American people because they increase the cost of various goods that they buy every day. Trump, though, has long been convinced that tariffs are the best way to protect the American workers, although it's unclear whether he has thought through all the ramifications of the broad-based tariffs he's imposed.