Why Trump's $2,000 tariff checks might not actually be $2,000
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington on Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Trump's promised $2,000 tariff dividend checks might not end up being $2,000.
Why it matters: The checks — a theoretical tariff dividend paid to most Americans — have become central to Trump's efforts to show his administration and party are addressing an affordability crisis that tariffs are at least partially fueling.
Driving the news: Trump said Wednesday at the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum that the U.S. would work toward giving checks worth "at least $2,000."
- "We're going to be doing a dividend to the people — low and middle income, moderate income people — of at least $2,000," he said.
How much tariff checks could be worth
The dividend checks have been identified by many, including Trump, as "$2,000 checks," but other amounts have been suggested.
- Trump has floated the checks for months, suggesting that they could range from $1,000 to $2,000.
- Trump originally teased "a little rebate" in July — but didn't specify an amount.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said over the weekend that the checks would require an act of Congress to become real — which means the House and Senate would both need to agree on an amount. (Whether that would be $2,000 or not remains unclear.)
- Bessent also said the checks would be for working families and have an income limit, which could also impact the amounts.
Reality check: Erica York, an economist at the Tax Foundation, has said that the math doesn't support the feasibility of tariff-funded dividends.
- York wrote in a post on X that if Trump were to make the dividend payments available to everyone earning $100,000 or less, the policy would affect about 150 million Americans, or roughly $300 billion in dividends.
- "The math gets worse accounting for the full budgetary impact of tariffs: A dollar of tariff revenue offsets about 24 cents of income and payroll tax revenue," she wrote.
What Bessent has said about the $2,000
Bessent also suggested that Americans save their checks in order to avoid more stimulus-driven inflation.
- "Maybe we could persuade Americans to save that," he told Fox News, "because one of the things that's going to happen next year" are the "Trump accounts" that save money for kids.
- Those accounts — which were created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are a new swell of investment accounts for children born between 2025 and 2028.
- The "Trump accounts" would be seeded with $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury. Parents, meanwhile, could contribute an extra $5,000 per year.
Previous Trump checks
Trump previously issued government-funded checks of various amounts during the pandemic.
- The first round, released in March 2020 amid the pandemic, were $1,200 per person and $500 per child under the CARES Act.
- The second round, released in December 2020, were $600 per person and $600 per child under the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Flashback: These checks were popular for Trump.
- Former President Biden expressed regret over not putting his own name on the checks that were sent out while he was in office.
