“I did do that? When did I do that?” he said adding, “Yeah, I’m thinking. Well, I did $1,776 for the military.”

When pressed further by another reporter, he replied: “Well, I am going to – the tariff money is so substantial. That’s coming in, that I’ll be able to do $2,000 sometime. I would say toward the end of the year.”

Revised estimates

The next month, in February 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down a key part of his tariff policy – and now, rather than functioning as a traditional dividend, the proposal is increasingly being framed as a stimulus check, intended to offset the extra costs Americans have already absorbed.

Estimates from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) suggest U.S. consumers paid roughly $231 billion in tariff-related expenses between February 2025 and January 2026, an amount that averages out to about $1,745 per household, strengthening arguments that taxpayers could receive compensation for those added costs.

The proposed payment has been presented as a way to ease some of that financial pressure by redistributing part of the revenue back to households.