President Trump says the proposed $2,000 ‘tariff dividend’ checks are on the way — but the official payout date is still up in the air.
On Friday, the president offered a fresh update on when the payments might roll out — and confirmed they won’t arrive in time to boost the Christmas shopping season.
Instead, he said the checks are now slated for 2026 — a timing choice that comes as he navigates a challenging midterm election season.
President Trump says he’s aiming to roll out the tariff dividend checks next year — and he’s pushing to make it happen. Bloomberg via Getty Images
"It will be next year. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend. We’re going to do a dividend and we’re also going to be reducing debt," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Mar-a-Lago.
But hanging over the tariff dividend plan are growing concerns that the Supreme Court could strike down Trump’s "trafficking" and "reciprocal" tariffs after a challenging round of oral arguments for the administration.
When asked whether he’d still issue the tariff dividend checks if the Supreme Court rolls back his tariffs, Trump replied, "Then I’d have to do something else."
On top of that, the tariff rebate would still need approval from Congress — and several Republicans have already voiced skepticism, arguing that Trump should be prioritizing cuts to the federal budget deficit instead.
So far, Trump administration officials have offered few details about how the tariff rebate checks would actually work. Just last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the team is still working out what the income limit should be.
“Well, there are a lot of options here that the president’s talking about a $2,000 rebate and those — that would be for families making less than, say, $100,000,” Bessent told “Fox & Friends” last Wednesday.
To get the tariff dividend payments out, President Trump still needs Congress on board — and could also face the hurdle of winning his Supreme Court case. Getty Images
He quickly clarified, however, that ‘it’s still under discussion’ and ‘no decision has been made’ on that limit.
Earlier this month, the president rolled out the proposal, noting it would exclude "high-income earners" — though he didn’t specify an exact income cutoff.
Trump unveiled the plan shortly after most Supreme Court justices expressed serious skepticism about the tariffs he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Since the start of his second term, Trump has relied on IEEPA — a law that never even mentions tariffs and that no previous president used to impose duties — to roll out targeted tariffs on nearly every country.
President Trump’s push for tariff dividends comes on the heels of Democrats’ off-year election sweep, driven by their focus on affordability. Getty Images
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the IEEPA tariffs have generated roughly $90 billion from their rollout through September 23.
For context, all of Trump’s tariffs — including the IEEPA duties and others not currently challenged in the Supreme Court — brought in $195.9 billion between the start of fiscal year 2025 and August 31, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Many of those tariffs, particularly the IEEPA ones, weren’t fully in effect at the start of fiscal year 2025 — meaning the administration could pull in even more revenue if they stayed in place for a full year.
If the $2,000 dividend payments were limited to individuals earning under $100,000, it would cost roughly $300 billion, according to Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.
A COVID-19-era plan to send $2,000 checks to families was estimated to cost around $464 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
If Trump loses the Supreme Court case on the IEEPA tariffs, he could be forced to return the money — though exactly how that would play out remains unclear.
