Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced a new plan to send tariff rebate checks of $2,000 each to Americans using money collected from tariffs. Trump posted that people who oppose tariffs are foolish, promising that everyone but high-income earners would get at least $2,000. But experts are raising questions as to whether this plan will actually work. There are a lot of issues with this idea that would need to be worked out first.
What Trump’s Plan Actually Means
Trump has discussed sending out rebate checks before. In August, he spoke about giving Americans a share of tariff money. Tariffs refer to extra fees paid by companies bringing products into America from other countries. The government has received over $220 billion from tariffs since the commencement of Trump’s second term.
The president thinks there’s enough money to send checks and still have some left over. He even said the remaining money would help pay down America’s huge debt of nearly $40 trillion. But the math might not add up. More than 163 million Americans filed tax returns last year. And if each person gets $2,000, that would cost about $36 billion, approximately. That’s more money than what tariffs brought in.
Trump says the wealthy won’t receive checks. But nobody knows exactly where that cut-off line would be. Even if checks are given to people earning less than $100,000, that’s still about 150 million people. And it would cost around $300 billion.
Big Problems with the Money
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wasn’t all that keen on the plan. Asked about it on TV, he said no formal proposal is in existence yet. He suggested the $2,000 could come in various ways, not just in the form of checks. Maybe it could help compensate for lost tax money from not taxing tips or overtime pay.
Another big issue is the Supreme Court. The court is looking at how Trump used emergency powers to add tariffs. About $100 billion of tariff money came from this method. If the court says Trump can’t do this, the government might have to give that money back to businesses. That would leave much less money for rebate checks.
Will Congress Say Yes
Trump cannot unilaterally issue checks; spending must be approved by Congress. Previous stimulus checks required a Congressional yes vote before being distributed. It’s not clear whether Trump has the votes on this plan.
It might not sit well with some members of Congress. Fiscal-conscious, debt-weary Republicans could vote against it. Mailing checks would be a surefire way to inflate prices even further. That would then create the need for the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates, something that hurts everybody. The checks were popular during the pandemic. But those were emergencies. Today feels different to many lawmakers.
When Will People Get Money?
Even if Congress approves the plan, it will take time to get checks. During the pandemic, people who opted for direct deposit got money in about a week after the law passed. But people who wanted paper checks waited around 20 weeks.
A White House official said the government wants to use tariff money to help Americans, without detailing who would qualify or when checks might arrive. This remains just an idea posted by Trump online. There are many steps between that and $2,000 tariff rebate checks arriving in bank accounts.
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