President Trump keeps suggesting that taxpayers deserve a piece of the tariff pie, so he has proposed a $2,000 bonus for all taxpayers “sometime next year.”
My guess is that that “sometime” would be right before the November elections, say in September or October of 2026.
The idea has a couple of fathers. One is the upcoming Supreme Court tariff powers ruling. By Trump’s sharing the tariff wealth with all, SCOTUS may look more favorably on the president’s power to impose levies basically at will.
The other is the affordability crisis. Republicans got shellacked two weeks ago in statewide and city elections, in large part because of the rising price of basic commodities. The $2K would offset some of the cost increases (which, of course, are also in great part reflective of tariff policy).
Explained Trump to a bevy of reporters:
“The tariffs allow us to give a dividend, if we want to do that. Now we’re going to do a dividend, and we’re also reducing debt we have because of Biden and others; we have 37 trillion in debt. So we’re going to be doing a dividend, which people will enjoy and spend, and do what they want. But we’re also going to be reducing debt.”
