Donald Trump Says Tariff Dividend of ‘at Least’ $2,000 Will Be Paid to Most Americans

“A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” Trump wrote in a Nov. 9 Truth Social post

Bailey Richards is a writer-reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023 and interned with the brand in 2022. Her work has previously appeared in digital publications like PAPER and TV Insider.

Donald Trump.Credit : Alexander Tamargo/Getty

President Donald Trump said he will pay Americans tariff dividends totaling upward of $2,000.

In a Nov. 9 post on Truth Social, Trump, 79, said he will use tariff revenues collected by the federal government to pay out a “dividend” totaling $2,000 or more to most in the United States.

“A dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high-income people!) will be paid to everyone,” he wrote in the post, which also contained several bold claims about the current fiscal health of the country.

In the same post, Trump wrote, “People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!”

Donald Trump.Andrew Harnik/Getty

The latest statement from Trump doesn’t mark the first time he has raised the idea of tariff dividends.

The president previously brought up a “distribution to the people” in an October interview with One America News Network, Business Insider reported. At the time, Trump said the sum of the suggested “distribution” would be $1,000 to $2,000 per person, according to the outlet.

Months earlier, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a similar idea in legislation, aiming to provide rebates of $600 to almost every American, plus their dependent children, using tariff revenues, according to The Hill.

The idea also comes as the Supreme Court reviews the legality of the president’s tariffs, many of which lower courts previously found unlawful, according to Business Insider. (Trump justified the levies under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.)

Outside of the proposed dividends, the president’s Truth Social post also doubled down on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s previous assertion, per The Hill, that the Trump administration will continue to prioritize using tax revenues to reduce the national debt.

In the Nov. 9 post, Trump stated that the government “will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT” using the revenue.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury collected a total of $195 billion from tariff duties in 2025, from the beginning of the year through September, according to The Hill, which cited an official department report.

Donald Trump.Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Trump’s plan to pay tariff dividends — a move that would likely require congressional approval — was also shared amid a series of posts on the platform primarily targeting the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” and blasting Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, which officially became the longest in history last week.

In the Nov. 9 posting spree, Trump continued to put the blame for the shutdown on Democrats. At the center of the dispute is funding for health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which Trump and other Republicans have long targeted, and which Democrats want to extend.

Without those subsidies, the cost of insurance for more than 20 million Americans could double.

As a result of the historic shutdown, millions of struggling Americans are now receiving reduced and delayed food benefits, while healthcare subsidies are set to expire.

Additionally, more than 600,000 federal workers have been furloughed, and upward of 700,000 have kept working without pay.