President Trump indicated Thursday that he continues to consider distributing up to $2,000 per American from tariff-generated funds, framing it as a direct benefit from his trade policies.
The idea, which Trump has mentioned previously, would draw from the substantial inflows since imposing high duties on imports starting in April. Speaking to One America News Network, Trump highlighted the policy’s potential scale.
“They’re just starting to kick in,” Trump said of the tariffs in an interview with One America News Network, “but ultimately, your tariffs are going to be over a trillion dollars a year.”
“Number one, we’re paying down debt,” Trump said, “because people have allowed the debt to go crazy.”
Trump then argued that the $37 trillion national debt is actually “very little, relatively speaking” because the government is now taking in unprecedented sums of money from tariffs.
“With that being said, we’ll pay back debt, but we also might make a distribution to the people,” Trump continued.
Trump described his plan, which he’s floated before, as “a dividend to the people of America.”
“We’re thinking maybe $1,000 to $2,000 – it would be great,” the president said of the size of the checks Americans might get.
Such payouts would necessitate congressional authorization to proceed.
Tariff Collections Hit New Milestones in 2025
The U.S. Treasury has amassed approximately $214.9 billion in tariff duties through September 2025, reflecting a sharp uptick from prior years. September’s haul reached $31.3 billion, a slight dip of $73 million from August’s peak, though officials project at least $300 billion for the full year.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly said that he expects the US to generate at least $300 billion in tariff revenue by the end of the year.
These figures underscore the revenue stream’s growth, even as legal challenges mount against the tariffs’ foundation.
Legal Hurdles Ahead: Supreme Court to Weigh Presidential Authority
The proposal unfolds against a backdrop of judicial scrutiny, with the Supreme Court set to review the legality of Trump’s broad tariff impositions during oral arguments the first week of November.
In August, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that most of the president’s tariffs were not covered by an emergency powers law – a decision that followed two lower courts finding that most of the levies imposed on US trading partners were illegal.
The appeals court allowed Trump’s tariffs to remain in place pending his administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
The justices on the high court will hear oral arguments in the case in the first week of November.
Bessent warned the justices in a filing that the government could be forced to refund between $750 billion to $1 trillion in collected and projected tariff revenue if the Supreme Court finds the duties are illegal.
