NEED TO KNOW
- In early November, President Donald Trump introduced the idea that a majority of Americans would receive $2,000 rebate checks from the tariffs
- However, when The New York Times asked the president about the claim in a recent interview, he replied, “When did I do that?”
- The president then followed up that the administration will be able to issue the checks likely “toward the end of the year”
President Donald Trump appeared to briefly draw a blank when asked about one of his previous comments about tariffs.
During an interview in the Oval Office last week with The New York Times, the outlet’s White House correspondents, Katie Rogers and Tyler Pager, asked the president about the tariffs and his previous statement about sending rebate checks to Americans.
“You’ve promised $2,000 checks to Americans based off of your tariff revenues. When can they expect those?” Rogers asked in the interview, published on Sunday, Jan. 11.
The president initially questioned her, asking, “I did do that? When did I do that?”
Rogers replied, “Well, I mean, your —,” but Trump seemingly interjected to say, “Yeah, I’m thinking. Well, I did $1,776 for the military.”
On Dec. 18, Trump and the Department of Defense announced that nearly 1.5 million service members would receive a “Warrior Dividend” of $1,776, and credited the funds to the Big Beautiful Bill.
Pager followed up by asking for the timeline. “When will those Americans get those checks?”
“Well, I am going to,” Trump replied. “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.”
When asked if he would need Congressional approval, Trump, 79, replied, “No, I don’t believe we do. We have it coming in from other sources.”
PEOPLE reached out to the White House Press Office for comment.
Trump introduced the idea of the $2,000 rebate checks in early November, when he posted to Truth Social, “People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!”
Trump said that the U.S. is taking in “Trillions of Dollars,” and will allow sending a tariff “dividend” to the American citizens. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high-income people!) will be paid to everyone,” he wrote in a Nov. 9 Truth Social post.
On Nov. 10, the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the government would need around $600 billion to issue checks to Americans who would qualify.
However, on Nov. 12, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News that he and the president had not discussed the possibility of a tariff rebate for the American people.
He also warned Americans to save the rebate money to avoid inflation. “Maybe we could persuade Americans to save that,” Bessent said in a Nov. 18 Fox News interview, Axios reported.
Trump said in a Nov. 24 Truth Social post that the tariff “amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received.” He noted that Americans have not yet felt “the full benefit of the Tariffs.”
His post concluded by saying that he was “looking forward” to the Supreme Court’s decision on whether the tariffs are illegal under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The IEEPA, passed by Congress in 1977, “provides the President broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency.”
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If the Supreme Court rules the tariffs are illegal, the Trump administration would have to refund the tariff revenue to the entitled companies. The decision can be announced as soon as Wednesday, Jan. 14, the BBC reports.
Bessent told Reuters on Jan. 9 that if the ruling finds the tariffs illegal, the Treasury Department will be able to refund the nearly $774 billion in tax refunds. However, he notes that the return of funds will be spread out over weeks or even a year.
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