President Donald Trump has promised numerous times that he would use some of the funds raised from his controversial tariffs to distribute a $2,000 “dividend” to American households — but in a recent interview with The New York Times, he appeared to have forgotten that pledge altogether.
In an interview published this week, Trump appeared confused when a reporter asked when Americans could expect their checks.
“You’ve promised $2,000 checks to Americans based off of your tariff revenues. When can they expect those?” Times journalist Katie Rogers asked the president.
“I did do that?” Trump asked.
Trump then assured the reporters that he would make the payments happen, though he left out the specifics on when they would occur.
“I am going to,” Trump said. “The tariff money is so substantial that’s coming in, that I’ll be able to do $2,000 sometime, I would say toward the end of the year.”
Trump also bragged about payments he claimed were already paid for using tariff revenues, citing the $1,776 checks that were distributed to members of the U.S. military. However, that money did not, in fact, stem from tariff revenues, but was instead allocated by Congress through legislation last summer.
Should Trump make good on his vow to send out $2,000 checks by “the end of this year,” the checks would still be coming later than he had promised in the past.
In November, Trump made a post on Truth Social calling people who are opposed to his tariffs “FOOLS,” and made the promise of “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person.” In December, Trump said, “We’re going to be giving a nice dividend to the people.”
Despite saying those payments would happen at the end of 2026 in the Times interview, Trump had said in those previous statements they would occur “sometime” or in the “middle” of the year, indicating that he is pushing back the timeline — if they get sent out at all.
Trump has made many other promises regarding what the tariff revenues will be used for, including claiming they may one day end the need for income taxes, an assertion experts say is highly unlikely. He has also stated that tariffs would be used to reduce the national debt, fund child care, support struggling farmers, and more.
There’s ample reason to believe the “tariff dividends” Trump has promised will never materialize, as he has broken similar promises before.
The Trump administration has previously said it was considering paying out $5,000 “dividends” to Americans, supposedly derived from cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That plan has since fizzled out, and hasn’t been discussed by Trump for several months now.
It’s also likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that Trump’s widespread tariffs, based on his legally questionable declarations of national emergencies, are unlawful. Trump has dubiously stated that such a ruling could put the nation’s security at risk.
Even if tariff dividend checks could be sent out, the $2,000 wouldn’t be enough to cover the costs the tariffs brought to many American families, as some estimates show that tariffs have cost households as much as $2,600 in additional costs per year.
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