Topline
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump’s promised $2,000 tariff “dividend” would require legislation in Congress, offering a more cautious view of the proposed payments after Trump days ago said they would be distributed “next year.”
President Donald Trump speaks to members of press aboard Air Force One on November 14, 2025 while in flight from Washington, DC to West Palm Beach International Airport. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Speaking to Fox Business’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bessent said “we will see” when asked if Trump’s proposed tariff dividends would come into fruition, noting that “we need legislation for that.”
Bessent also said the payments “would be for working families, we’ll have an income limit,” but did not elaborate on where that limit would be set.
Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One the $2,000 payments would come “sometime next year, during the year,” adding, “we’ve taken in a lot of money from tariffs. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend.”
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea, writing on Truth Social earlier this month, “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” claiming the U.S. is able to make the payments because of his various economic achievements.
Trump made the proposal while bashing opponents of his tariffs as “FOOLS,” days after both liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices cast doubt on his administration’s authority to impose the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Only Congress is authorized to spend federal dollars, however, and it’s unclear if Trump has the support to send out the money—or in what form the payments would be made.
Bessent previously suggested the payments “could come in lots of forms,” including tax cuts that are already part of Trump’s signature policy legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Injecting further uncertainty into the idea—about half of the revenue raised by Trump’s tariffs, $100 billion, is under review by the Supreme Court.
Tangent
Trump made a similar proposal with regard to savings his administration claimed were made by cuts implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency. “We’re considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt,” he said in February, though checks never came to fruition.
