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Trump: $2,000 Tariff Rebate Checks Will Not Be Issued Before Christmas
Americans will not receive a $2,000 rebate check from the federal government before Christmas.
President Donald Trump said on Friday that the proposed checks would not be issued before the end of the year. He made the comments aboard Air Force One on his way to Mar-a-Lago, the presidential club in Palm Beach. This marks his fourteenth visit to Palm Beach this year.
Trump has proposed sending $2,000 checks to most Americans, excluding high-income earners. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said no decision had been made regarding income thresholds. On the same day, the White House stated that it was “exploring all options” to send tariff rebate checks even as the Supreme Court considers a legal challenge to the president’s tariffs.
Congress would need to approve the rebate checks, similar to those distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump has addressed the rebate issue several times this week.
In a social media post earlier this week, Trump wrote: “All remaining funds from the $2,000 payments provided to low- and middle-income American citizens, and from the massive tariff revenues flowing into our country from foreign nations—which will be significant—will be used to greatly reduce the national debt.”
While Trump offered no specifics, preliminary estimates indicate that the cost of the checks would exceed the revenue generated by tariffs.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported that if the payments mirror the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus package, the $2,000 distributions would cost about $600 billion—nearly double what the tariffs are expected to generate.
An August report by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that tariffs could raise $4 trillion over the next decade. The CBO report came with warnings, noting that the tariffs would raise consumer prices and reduce the purchasing power of American households.
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