President Donald Trump announced on Nov. 9 plans to offer Americans outside of “high income” brackets $2,000 each out of his administration’s tariff revenues.
“We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion,” Trump wrote on social media. “Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”
The proposal would likely need the support of Congress to pass. In July, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the American Worker Rebate Act, which aimed to use tariff revenue for tax rebates of at least $600 per adult and child, determined by income level.
Trump had also first floated the idea of giving Americans a $2,000 “dividend” funded by tariff revenue while speaking with One America News Network in early October, when he said the federal government could use some of the revenue to issue rebate checks.
The president’s announcement on Nov. 9 came just days after the Supreme Court heard arguments over the legality of his global tariff agenda imposed earlier this year. Justices probed Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows presidents to regulate imports in response to emergencies. Congress, through Article 1 of the Constitution, has the authority to impose tariffs.
Some justices seemed skeptical of Trump’s use of that law to impose tariffs, while others were more difficult to read, casting uncertainty over the eventual ruling and what it will mean for the president’s tariff agenda.
Hellbound and Down 