President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was contemplating sending rebate checks to Americans using tariff revenue.
The U.S. government ran a $27 billion budget surplus in June, fueled partly by record tariff revenue, which exceeded $100 billion for the first time in a fiscal year, Reuters reported. When a reporter asked Trump at the White House if there was a chance of a rebate for Americans due to the revenue, the president said his administration was prioritizing paying off debt, but that a small rebate for some Americans was possible.
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“We’re thinking about that, actually. We have so much money coming in,” Trump said. “We’re thinking about a little rebate, but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate.”
“That’s a very good question. You just made a lot of news,” he continued. “We’re thinking about a rebate because we have so much money coming in from tariffs that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.”
Trump unveiled sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly every other nation on April 2, but announced a 90-day pause one week later, which cut most of them to a 10% baseline rate.
Once the 90-day pause was over, the president sent letters to many countries informing them of their new tariff rates.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also projected during a July 8 cabinet meeting that tariff revenue could climb to $300 billion by the end of 2025, according to Reuters.
Trump has long championed tariffs as a tool to rebalance trade and increase revenue, even suggesting that revenue from them may be able to replace the income tax.
Moreover, Trump announced new trade deals on Tuesday with Japan and the Philippines.
He wrote in a Truth Social post that the Japan deal is “perhaps the largest deal ever made,” adding that Japan will pay 15% reciprocal tariffs
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