With the 2026 elections approaching, discussion continues around President Donald Trump’s plan to issue $2,000 tariff-funded stimulus checks. Trump has said the rebates would be distributed to low- and middle-income Americans in mid-to-late 2026, financed through revenue generated by his broad import tariffs.
Several obstacles remain, however, including a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that will determine the legality of the tariffs, uncertainty over whether tariff revenue will be sufficient to fund large-scale payments, and the need for congressional approval, according to reports this week.
Although Trump has publicly promoted the idea since July, there is no assurance that the plan will be implemented. Some Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations, questioning both the feasibility of the proposal and its prospects in Congress.
Among them is Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who has said he would prefer tariff revenue be directed toward reducing the nation’s roughly $38 trillion debt rather than issuing rebate checks.
Several members of Trump’s administration have weighed in on the proposed tariff rebate plan. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has suggested an income cutoff of $100,000 for eligibility, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has defended the concept of the stimulus payments.
More recently, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the proposal’s future remains uncertain. Speaking on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Hassett said the plan’s fate “depends on what happens with Congress.”
“The deficit relative to last year is down by $600 billion, and so in the summer, I wasn’t so sure that there was space for a check like that, but now I’m pretty sure that there is, and so I would expect that in the new year, the President will bring forth a proposal to Congress to make that happen,” said Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, in the Dec. 21 interview.
Congress would need to draft and pass legislation to appropriate funding for the proposed stimulus checks, which independent tax policy group The Tax Foundation estimates would cost between $279.8 billion and $606.8 billion.
The organization projects that Trump’s tariffs would generate about $207.5 billion in revenue in 2026, in addition to roughly $205 billion collected through October of this year, with additional revenue expected in the remaining months of 2025.
During his appearance on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Hassett said funding for any rebate program could potentially come from sources beyond tariff revenue alone.
“It could come from from tariff revenue, but in the end, you know, we get taxes, we get tariffs, we get revenue from lots of places, and then Congress decides how to spend those monies,” he said. “That’s an appropriation.”
Trump has reiterated that the $2,000 payments are still planned, saying they would likely be distributed to eligible Americans “probably in the middle of next year.”
“We’re going to be issuing dividends later on, some somewhere prior to, probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that. Thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income,” the president said on Nov. 17, as reported by Axios.
He announced earlier this month in a nationwide address that military members would receive $1,776 bonuses – or “Warrior Dividends” – by the end of the year, citing tariff revenue as a source of that funding.
During his address, Trump implied that the bonuses had been planned for some time but had been kept under wraps.
“Along with the just passed one Big Beautiful bill, tonight, I am also proud to announce that more than 1450 thousand — think of this: 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special — we call it warrior dividend, before Christmas, a warrior dividend,” Trump said.
“In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago,” he added.
