President Trump Considering $2,000 Tariff ‘Dividend’ for Americans

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is weighing a plan to return some of the massive tariff revenue his administration has collected directly to the American people — potentially in the form of $1,000 to $2,000 checks.

In an interview with One America News Network, Trump described the idea as a “dividend to the people of America,” noting that tariffs imposed on foreign nations since April have already generated hundreds of billions of dollars.

“They’re just starting to kick in,” Trump said of the tariffs. “But ultimately, your tariffs are going to be over a trillion dollars a year.”

The president said any funds would first go toward paying down the national debt, which he pegged at $37 trillion. “Number one, we’re paying down debt, because people have allowed the debt to go crazy,” he said. “With that being said, we’ll pay back debt, but we also might make a distribution to the people.”

The federal government has taken in $214.9 billion in tariff revenue so far this year, according to Treasury Department data cited by Fox Business. In September alone, Washington collected $31.3 billion — slightly down from the record-setting month of August. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has projected at least $300 billion in tariff revenues by year’s end.

Any direct disbursement of funds would require congressional approval, though Trump has previously floated the idea of rebate-style checks.

The proposal comes as Trump’s tariff authority faces a critical legal test. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that most of the president’s tariffs were not justified under existing emergency powers law. While the court allowed the levies to remain in place, it set up a high-stakes showdown at the Supreme Court.

The justices are set to hear oral arguments in the first week of November. In court filings, Bessent warned that if the high court strikes down the tariffs, the government could be forced to refund between $750 billion and $1 trillion in collected and expected duties.

Trump, however, framed his tariff push as a historic windfall for the United States. “We’re bringing in unprecedented sums of money from countries that have taken advantage of us for decades,” he said. “It’s only fair that the American people — the ones who stood strong with me on this — should share in the reward.”