Congressional approval would likely be required for plan to take effect, an idea Trump has floated before<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump<\/a> on Sunday mused about giving most Americans $2,000 funded by tariff revenues collected by the president\u2019s administration \u2013 an evident bid to rally public support on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social<\/a> platform on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The post also made it a point to call people against tariffs \u201cFOOLS!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For such a plan to take effect, congressional approval would likely be required. Earlier this year, Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a bill proposing $600 in tariff rebates<\/a> for nearly all Americans and their dependent children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAmericans deserve a tax rebate after four years of [Joe] Biden [White House] policies that have devastated families\u2019 savings and livelihoods,\u201d Hawley said at the time. He said the legislation would \u201callow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump\u2019s tariffs are returning to this country\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said in August that the administration\u2019s main focus remains reducing the national debt, which stands at $38.12tn, using funds from tariff collections. He said the money would be used first to start paying down the federal debt \u2013 not to give<\/a> rebate checks to Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the treasury department\u2019s September report, $195bn<\/a> in customs duties were collected during the first three quarters of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though, it appears that the cost of giving out $2,000 checks could easily surpass the amount actually collected from the tariffs. According to calculations, these payments would cost close to if not more than double the amount that has reportedly been generated so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the cutoff is $100,000, 150M adults would qualify, for a cost near $300 billion,\u201d wrote Erica York, vice-president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, on social media<\/a>. \u201cIf kids qualify, that grows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe math gets worse accounting for the full budgetary impact of tariffs\u201d, York added. \u201cAdjusting for that, tariffs have raised $90 billion of net revenues compared to Trump\u2019s proposed $300 billion rebate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Arnold, co-chair of Arnold Ventures, estimated<\/a> that the dividend payments could cost as much as $513bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of October, consumers were paying an average effective tariff rate of nearly 18%, the highest since 1934, according to data from the Yale Budget Lab<\/a>. Since the president introduced widespread tariffs on global trading partners in April, companies have passed part of those costs on to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t the first time Trump has floated the idea of giving Americans stimulus checks based on revenue from his tariffs. In October, he said that he was considering offering Americans checks from the revenue, worth somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000. In July, the president again suggested that the government might consider tariff rebate checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February, he and tech mogul Elon Musk, who at the time was still advising the White House, said they were considering<\/a> the idea of a $5,000 \u201cdividend\u201d check based on savings generated by the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge). These payments never came to be as the national deficit actually increased under Doge, and the amount cut from federal spending was significantly exaggerated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US supreme court heard arguments<\/a> on Wednesday on Trump\u2019s sweeping global tariffs and appeared skeptical of their legality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n