President Donald Trump remains «committed» to sending each American a $2,000 dividend check to be distributed from tariff revenue, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.
White House officials are exploring ways to execute the plan put forward by Trump in a social media post over the weekend, Leavitt added, but she did not provide details about specific options.
«The president made it clear he wants to make it happen,» Leavitt told reporters at the White House. «So his team of economic advisers are looking into it.»
The firm stance from the White House comes days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared to cast doubt on Trump’s proposal, saying the payout could merely refer to tax savings enshrined by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill legislation.
A tariff dividend may come «in lots of forms,» Bessent told ABC News’ «This Week» on Sunday, adding that he had not spoken with Trump about the proposal.
«It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing 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 that are being financed in the tax bill,» Bessent added.
Some economists have questioned whether the dividend is achievable with available tariff funds.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Trump announced the policy proposal in a brief message on social media on Sunday morning, focused on tariff-related tax revenue.
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«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,» the president wrote. «A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.»
The message did not specify who would qualify for the payout or how the policy would operate. Two pandemic-era stimulus checks authorized by Trump were made available to individuals bringing in as much as $75,000 per year and couples earning up to $150,000. Beyond those benchmarks, higher earners were eligible for smaller payments.
If Trump were to make the dividend payments available to anyone earning $100,000 or less, the policy would reach about 150 million Americans, amounting to roughly $300 billion in dividends, Erica York, a policy expert at the Tax Foundation, said in a post on X.
As of Sept. 30, the federal government had generated $195 billion in tariff-related revenue, according to the Treasury Department.
By that math, the estimated $300 billion cost of the dividend check proposal would far exceed the amount of currently available tariff revenue.
In theory, however, the Trump administration could promise to pay the dividend from anticipated tariff revenue.
The Treasury Department has forecast $3 trillion in tariff revenue over the next decade. Should the Trump administration choose that route, the dividend payments would add to the federal debt, which currently stands at over $38 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.
