President Donald Trump is proposing to send most Americans a payment of at least $2,000 a person from revenue raised by his tariff program, according to his social media posts over the weekend.
The announcement came with few details about how the administration would distribute the money — or whether it would be legal, as the Supreme Court weighs whether the emergency powers Trump invoked to collect the tariff revenue were constitutional.
While the proposal to send $2,000 stimulus checks to low- and middle-income Americans is “politically shrewd,” financially it is unrealistic, says William Dickens, university distinguished professor emeritus of economics and public policy. Tariff revenues cover only a fraction of the roughly $660 billion price tag needed to cover the plan to pay more than 300 million citizens, he says.
Additionally, Congress would need to approve the payments.
