❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump is floating using some of the revenue generated by his tariffs to fund rebate checks for American taxpayers.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, the Treasury Department, and American taxpayers.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Trump addressed the idea of rebate checks while fielding questions outside the White House on Friday, July 25, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate. A little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.” — President Trump
🎯IMPACT: Rebates could help further boost consumer confidence and the U.S. economy, but such direct economic stimulus could also increase inflationary pressure.
President Donald J. Trump suggested on Friday that Americans could see rebate checks funded by record revenues taken in by the federal government through the imposition of tariffs on foreign goods. While the rebates could help further boost consumer confidence and the U.S. economy, such direct economic stimulus could also increase inflationary pressure.
“We have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House on Friday. “A little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.”
Data published by the U.S. Treasury Department shows that Trump’s tariffs have generated well over $100 billion in revenue so far this year.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says he may give lower income Americans a REBATE because so much tariff revenue is coming in.
Whoa, I don’t think anyone expected this.
“We’re thinking about a rebate. Because we have so much money coming in from tariffs. A little rebate for people… pic.twitter.com/cgkRXukrHc
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 25, 2025
Tariff revenues could reach nearly $30 billion in July alone. The National Pulse reported last week that data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that foreign manufacturers, not American consumers, are absorbing a bulk of the tariff costs, as they seek to protect their share in the U.S. market.
Tariff critics have—thus far—wrongly contended that the trade duties would be largely passed on to American consumers. This, however, would suggest that a taxpayer rebate would act purely as a stimulus and not as a tariff cost offset, meaning the increase in dollars among consumers could have inflationary impacts.
Previously, the Trump White House floated using some savings generated by cuts in government waste, identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to pay for rebate checks. The idea originated from former DOGE staffer James Fishback. However, his departure from the agency appears to have also sidelined the idea.
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