Name: Could Americans actually get $2,000 from tariff revenue?
Uploaded: 2025-11-12T00:41:09.910Z
Duration: 4 min 54 s
Description: President Trump has long argued that tariff revenue will be used to pay down the national debt but he is also suggesting some of that money could go directly to the public.

President Trump has long argued that tariff revenue will be used to pay down the national debt but he is also suggesting some of that money could go directly to the public.

Washington

President Trump has proposed that most Americans could receive $2,000 payments funded by tariff revenue, citing recent increases in tariff collections. However, Treasury Department figures show the U.S. collected $195 billion in tariffs in fiscal year 2025, which is far less than the amount needed to fund such payments nationwide.

Experts note that distributing $2,000 to Americans would require at least $600 billion, and there are no specific details on eligibility or distribution. Additionally, any such payments would likely require congressional approval, as was the case with previous economic impact payments. No immediate plans or legislative proposals have been announced.

Could Americans actually get $2,000 from tariff revenue?

And President Trump claims the U.S. is bringing in trillions of dollars from tariffs, and as a result, the president has suggested most Americans could receive $2,000 dividends. Scripps News Washington correspondent Stephanie Liebergen joins us now live from our D.C. newsroom. And Steph, so what exactly is the president talking about? I mean, could we all wake up, look at our bank accounts, and see a $2,000 deposit there? Hey, Holly, good afternoon. Well, it's certainly something the president is suggesting, and this is coming up now because of a couple posts that the president has made on Truth Social, one on Sunday and then one on Monday. And in these posts, if we can take a look at that Monday post, the president suggested that $2,000 payments would be made to low and middle income Americans, low and middle income USA citizens. And he is saying that this is leftover money from the massive tariff income that the country is taking in. Now, this isn't a new idea from the president. He has floated the idea of a dividend payment or paying money, you know, some kind of rebate for Americans. He's been floating that for a couple months now. I went back through some past interviews. He mentioned it as early, mentioned suggesting it as far back as August of this year. And it is something that, according to Kevin Hassert, the director of the National Economic Council, it is something that the White House and the administration has certainly looked into how those numbers could work. Take a listen. When we studied the matter in the summer, that we thought that deficit reduction might be the best use of those monies. But we've had a big surge in tax revenues. We've seen even a big surplus in the latest monthly Treasury report. Because of the surge in tax revenues, I think that's a position that Congress and the president are reconsidering. The president has long said that this tariff income, that all of this money coming into the country now because of his new tariffs that have largely started in April, that that money is going to be used to pay down the national debt. He is still saying that. But he's now also saying that either extra money or leftover money, or at least some of the tariff money, should be going back to the American public as some sort of rebate or dividend payment. But there are no specific details yet on exactly what that might look like, Holly. So a step, is the government taking in enough money from tariffs to make those $2,000 payments a reality? Is it for every adult? So the math is a little tricky if we want to take a look at some of the numbers. So the president says the country is taking in trillions of dollars in tariff revenue. But the latest data from the Treasury Department puts that number significantly lower. The Treasury Department data says the country took in, in fiscal year 2025, so in the fiscal year that ended at the end of September, the country took in $195 billion in tariffs. Now that is total tariff revenue. So it includes tariffs that were in place before the president took office and before the president's April 2nd liberation day, where he launched a ton of new tariffs. Now it is notable, there was a notable increase in tariff revenue that the country took in starting in April. But the cost of what these dividend payments, if it's, you know, that $195 billion the country took in for the last fiscal year, how much it would cost to put out these dividend payments depends a lot on the details that we just don't have. Is this $2,000 per household? Is it per adult? Does it include children? And we don't have any of those details right now. But if we look back to the last type of payment like this that Americans received, the COVID economic impact payments, remember a lot of us received as many as three of those in 2020 and 2021. If these new tariff dividend payments are spelled out, anything like the COVID payments, according to the committee for a responsible federal budget, they would cost $600 billion to make these $2,000 payments. Now that is way more than the $195 billion the country took in in tariffs in 2025. That number would like, if the tariffs stay in place, that number will be notably higher for the fiscal year in 2026. But it looks like the math might not work out the way the president is talking about. But again, it all depends on those details. And those are details we just don't have right now. There's another very important thing to remember. It is unlikely that the president can do this on his own. Looking back to those COVID economic impact payments, all three of the all three rounds of those payments became possible because of a bill passed by Congress and then signed into law by then President Trump and then twice by President Biden. So congressional input likely to be part of this process if these payments become a reality for Americans, Holly. So don't go be buying things and cashing those checks just quite yet. Maybe not yet. Scripps News, Washington correspondent Stephanie Liebergen, live for us. Thanks for that information, Steph.

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