President Trump has again floated the idea of giving Americans stimulus checks based on revenue from his tariffs.
The big picture: Trump is continuing to promote the revenue from tariffs as they receive pushback from the courts.
Driving the news: Trump said on One America News television network in an interview that aired on Thursday that he is considering offering Americans checks from the revenue, worth somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000.
- “We’re going to do something, we’re looking at something. No. 1, we’re paying down debt. Because people have allowed the debt to go crazy,” he said.
- “We’ll pay back debt, but we also might make a distribution to the people, almost like a dividend to the people of America,” he added.
Here’s what to know:
How much money tariffs are generating
By the numbers: Tariffs are projected to generate more than $400 billion a year in revenue, Axios’ Neil Irwin reported this week.
Zoom in: As of June, the U.S. had already collected more than $100 billion in customs revenue since Trump took office, Axios reported this summer.
- Most of that, $81.5 billion in total, is from tariffs imposed since Jan. 20.
What we’re watching: The tariffs will lower deficits by a combined $4 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said in August, a substantial increase from its last projection from just June.
Yes, but: New tariffs are still being put into effect, collections aren’t fully matching what’s been imposed and a pending Supreme Court case could end up gutting the program.
What Trump has said about stimulus checks
Catch up quick: Trump has floated the idea of new stimulus checks before.
- In July, the president suggested that the government might consider tariff rebate checks as well.
- He and Elon Musk, at the time still involved with the White House, said they were considering the idea of a $5,000 “dividend” check based on DOGE savings.
Reality check: Rebates would return to consumers some of the higher prices they’ve paid as a result of the new tariffs, Axios’ Ben Berkowitz wrote in July — but could also spur inflation, similar to what happened after previous rounds of government stimulus.
Flashback: Government-issued checks were popular for Trump in the early years of the pandemic.
- Former President Biden expressed regret over not putting his own name on checks sent out during his time in office.
