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US President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested giving most Americans a $2,000 payment funded through tariff revenues collected by his administration, a move widely seen as an attempt to bolster public support for his trade policies.

“A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He also lashed out at critics of tariffs, calling them “FOOLS!” in his post.

Any such initiative would require congressional approval. Earlier this year, Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a proposal for $600 tariff rebates for most Americans and their dependent children, arguing that citizens should directly benefit from tariff collections.

“Americans deserve a tax rebate after four years of [Joe] Biden [White House] policies that have devastated families’ savings and livelihoods,” Hawley said at the time. His bill, he noted, would allow “hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump’s tariffs are returning to this country.”

Treasury Cautions Against Rebate Plans

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signalled in August that the administration’s priority remains debt reduction rather than direct cash transfers. The national debt currently stands at $38.12 trillion.

Bessent said that tariff revenues would be used “to start paying down the federal debt,” not to fund rebate cheques. According to Treasury data, $195 billion in customs duties were collected during the first three quarters of the year.

However, analysts noted that distributing $2,000 payments to most Americans would cost far more than the total amount raised from tariffs so far.

When And How Can Americans Get The 'Dividend'?

The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent further added that he hasn’t spoken to Trump yet about his proposal but that “the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways” which do not just resemble direct stimulus checks.

“It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda,” he added. “You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Deductibility of auto loans.”

“So, you know, those are substantial deductions that, you know, are being financed in the tax bill,” Bessent further added.

Economic Experts Question The Math

“If the cutoff is $100,000, 150 million adults would qualify, for a cost near $300 billion,” wrote Erica York, vice-president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, on social media. “If kids qualify, that grows.”

York added that “the math gets worse accounting for the full budgetary impact of tariffs. Adjusting for that, tariffs have raised $90 billion of net revenues compared to Trump’s proposed $300 billion rebate.”

John Arnold, co-chair of Arnold Ventures, estimated that the plan’s total cost could reach as high as $513 billion.

Consumers Bearing Higher Costs

Data from the Yale Budget Lab showed that, as of October, consumers were paying an average effective tariff rate of nearly 18 per cent, the highest since 1934. Analysts have pointed out that many companies have passed these costs on to consumers, contributing to price pressures.

Since introducing broad tariffs on trading partners in April, the administration has framed the measures as an effort to protect domestic industries and reduce foreign dependence, though critics argue they have acted as a hidden tax on households.

Recurring Idea, Legal Challenges Persist

This is not the first time Trump has floated the notion of using tariff revenue for direct cash payments. In October and July, he proposed rebate cheques ranging between $1,000 and $2,000, and in February he and tech billionaire Elon Musk had discussed a $5,000 “dividend” tied to savings from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Those payments never materialised, as the federal deficit rose and projected savings failed to materialise.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court heard arguments last week on the legality of Trump’s global tariff regime, with several justices expressing scepticism about its scope and constitutional validity.