President Donald Trump remains “committed” to sending every American a $2,000 dividend check funded by tariff revenue, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
Leavitt added that White House officials are exploring ways to implement the proposal Trump outlined in a social media post over the weekend, but she did not provide details about specific methods.
“The president made it clear he wants to make it happen,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House. “His team of economic advisers is looking into it.”
The announcement comes just days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared to question the plan, suggesting the payout could instead take the form of tax reductions included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill legislation.
A tariff dividend could come “in lots of forms,” Bessent told ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, noting he had not discussed the plan directly with the president. “It could be just the tax decreases on the president’s agenda—no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility on auto loans. Those are substantial deductions financed by the tax bill,” he said.
Some economists have raised doubts about whether available tariff revenue could support the dividend. Trump first announced the plan in a brief Sunday morning social media post focused on tariff-related funds.
“People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER,” Trump wrote. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
The post did not define who would qualify or how the policy would operate. For comparison, Trump’s two pandemic-era stimulus checks were distributed to individuals earning up to $75,000 annually and couples earning up to $150,000, with higher earners receiving smaller amounts.
Erica York, a policy expert at the Tax Foundation, estimated that if the dividend were made available to anyone earning $100,000 or less, roughly 150 million Americans would benefit, for a total cost of about $300 billion. As of September 30, the Treasury Department reported $195 billion in tariff revenue.
By that calculation, the proposed $2,000 dividend would exceed the current tariff revenue. However, the administration could choose to fund the payouts with anticipated future tariffs. The Treasury forecasts $3 trillion in tariff revenue over the next decade, though doing so would add to the federal debt, which currently exceeds $38 trillion.