President Trump has been touting $2,000 tariff dividend checks for months. White House adviser Kevin Hassett told CBS News that he plans to present his proposal to Congress in 2026.
President Trump announces $1,776 ‘Warrior Dividend’ to US military
President Donald Trump announced that his administration will distribute $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” checks to military members before Christmas.
President Donald Trump may have a $2,000 tariff dividend check on his 2026 wish list. But Congress will have something to say about it.
President Trump has been discussing a plan to return tariff dividends to Americans in 2026 for months.
“Next year is expected to be the biggest tax refund season in history, and we’ve taken in literally trillions of dollars that we’re going to refund in tariffs,” President Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2. “In addition to debt reduction, we intend to give good dividends to the people.”
However, there is still no guarantee that these checks will or should be issued. On Dec. 18, the president announced that he would send $1,776 checks, known as the “Warrior Dividend,” to the nation’s 1.45 million service members before Christmas. Those funds were provided by the Pentagon, the Pentagon said.
But the tariff dividend checks will likely require a bill to pass Congress before it can be signed by the president, White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, Dec. 21.
“The deficit compared to last year is down $600 billion, and in the summer we weren’t so sure there would be room for such a check. But now we’re confident there is room for such a check. So we expect the president to bring a proposal to Congress in the new year to make that happen,” said Hassett, chairman of the White House National Economic Council.
How will the Administrative Fund check the $2,000 tariff dividend?
President Trump said the money for the checks would come from customs revenue, but Hassett said that was just one possibility.
“We get taxes, we get tariffs, we get revenue from a lot of places, and Congress decides how to spend those money,” he told Brennan. “That’s diversion. So this has to be diversion money.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the same thing to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on Nov. 16. He previously said in a Nov. 12 interview on Fox News that discussions at the White House included rebates for “for example, households with incomes under $100,000.”
Will I get a $2,000 dividend check?
I don’t really know yet.
Trump said the tariff revenue “could lead to some rebates, but what we want to do is pay down the debt.” The rebates will arrive “in the middle of next year,” he said.
But some experts believe the test is unwise and unlikely to be carried out, mainly because the numbers don’t make sense.
Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, estimates that the tariff dividend could be up to more than $300 billion. “The only problem is, new tariffs have raised $120 billion so far,” he said in a Nov. 9 post on X, while net revenue from tariffs for fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1, will be about $216 billion.
The Tax Foundation estimates that President Trump’s tariffs will raise revenue by $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years, but that drops to $1.6 trillion after foreign retaliation and other negative economic impacts are factored in.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that accelerating debt payments and reducing interest payments will generate $3.3 trillion in tariff revenue over 10 years, totaling about $4 trillion to the government.
Scott Linthicum, vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, said in a Nov. 17 post on
If many of President Trump’s tariffs are struck down by the Supreme Court, plans for a tariff dividend check could also be blocked, but the Supreme Court appears to be questioning whether President Trump has the authority to impose tariffs when it hears arguments on Nov. 5.
In July, Congress has a chance to pass the tariff rebate proposed by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mississippi) in the American Worker Rebate Act of 2025. The bill, which has not yet been passed, would impose rebate checks of at least $600 per individual on U.S. residents. A family of four can receive up to $2,400.
CBS News’ Brennan summed it up after Hassett spoke about the need for Congress to pass the bill: “That means don’t count on it,” she said.
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
