President Donald Trump stirred excitement among some, early Sunday, with a vow to send $2,000 tariff dividend payouts to every American — save for high wage earners. But shortly after the president made that promise, his treasury secretary pumped the brakes on the idea that the checks will soon be in the mail.
In the final moments of a tense battle with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday’s edition of ABC’s This Week, Bessent was challenged about the logistics of Trump’s proposal.
“He also promised, this morning, a dividend of at least $2,000 a person, not including high-income people,” Stephanopoulos said. “How is he going to pay that dividend of $2,000 a person?”
Bessent temporarily punted to address another question from Stephanopoulos about whether Trump undermined his administration’s own legal argument in favor of the tariffs — that their primary purpose is not to generate revenue — by focusing on the money they’re purportedly bringing in.
“It’s not about taking in the revenue, it’s about re-balancing,” Bessent said. “And the revenue occurs early on. And then as we rebalance and the jobs come home, then it becomes domestic tax revenue.”
“Are you worried that the president’s focus on revenue, though, which is what he’s been focusing on in his public statements, is going to hurt your argument in the Supreme Court?” Stephanopoulos shot back.
“Not at all,” Bessent said. “It’s completely consistent that the revenues come in at the beginning, then, as we rebalance, which is the goal of this, bring back high-paid manufacturing jobs to the U.S., then it will then morph into domestic tax revenues.”
Stephanopoulos then tried to pin Bessent down on the specifics of the tariff payout.
“Do you have a proposal, a formal proposal, to give a $2,000 dividend to every American?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Bessent replied by making clear Americans shouldn’t mentally spend that cash just yet.
“I haven’t spoken to the president about this yet, but, you know, the $2,000 dividend could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways, George,” Bessent said. “You know, 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. Deductibility of auto loans. So, you know, those are substantial deductions that, you know, are being financed in the tax bill.”
