President Donald Trump’s proposal to send Americans $2,000 checks funded by his sweeping tariffs is under fire for not adding up.
Trump, 79, pledged to send rebates to U.S. citizens who are “low and middle income.”
The president did not provide any specifics in his Truth Social post on Monday about what qualified for the income levels, but he wrote that whatever is left over could be used to pay down the debt.
“All money left over from the $2000 payments made to low and middle income USA Citizens, from the massive Tariff Income pouring into our Country from foreign countries, which will be substantial, will be used to SUBSTANTIALLY PAY DOWN NATIONAL DEBT,” he wrote on Monday.
He also touted his dividend plan in the Oval Office on Monday while taking questions from the press.
Middle class income typically ranges from $56,600 to $169,800 depending on where a person lives, but even if the president’s proposal was capped at those earning less than $100,000, the tariff revenue would not be enough to cover the cost of checks, never mind address the debt.
As the Tax Foundation’s Erica York quickly pointed out, about 150 million people make less than $100,000. She noted that sending each of them a $2,000 check would cost $300 billion, and Trump’s tariffs are only projected to raise $217 billion annually.
“There would be no leftover tariff revenue,” York wrote.
The Bipartisan Policy Center found the U.S. has brought in $226 billion in gross tariff revenue and other excise taxes this year so far, still not enough to cover such checks for everyone making up to $100,000.
Meanwhile, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimated if dividends were awarded annually, it would cost twice as much over the next decade as tariffs are projected to raise.
By their estimates, if the proposal was structured similarly to the way the stimulus checks were during the coronavirus pandemic, each round would actually cost $600 billion annually or $6 trillion over ten years.
The president’s latest post comes after he wrote early on Sunday that a dividend of at least $2,000 a person “will be paid to everyone” except “high income people” while he was defending his tariffs.
“We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion,” Trump also wrote.
While the president continues to promote the idea, even members of his own administration have already downplayed the likelihood of the president’s proposal coming to fruition in the form of an actual check.
“The $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC News on Sunday.
“It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda. You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security,” the Treasury Secretary added.
The president’s latest proposal comes as the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on whether the president’s tariffs are legal.
Just last week, even some conservative justices appeared deeply skeptical of the government’s case for the president’s tariffs while hearing oral arguments.
The court cast serious doubt on whether the president had the power to impose the tariffs by invoking a national emergency as well as raising concerns about returning the revenue already collected should they rule against him.
Sending checks directly to Americans has been done in the past, but it typically takes place in response to a national emergency such as the stimulus payments which were sent out three times to individuals and families in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The post Trump, 79, Struggles With Basic Math on Refund Checks appeared first on The Daily Beast.
