Republicans in Congress lukewarm on Trump idea of tariff rebate checks

President Donald Trump’s push to send a tariff rebate check to Americans would take an act of Congress, his top economic advisers acknowledge. Support among Republicans on Capitol Hill is lukewarm, at best.

“I think it’s an idea that needs to be fleshed out,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.). “We’re $36, $37 trillion in debt. To me, I think our bus is full. If you want to add something, then take something off the bus. That’s just me.”

Fresh off a resounding defeat in off-year elections that focused heavily on the economy and affordability, Trump and Republicans have spent the past week focused on cost-of-living issues, floating ideas to lower beef and housing prices, among other talking points, to soothe Americans who are feeling uneasy about their bank accounts.

Chief among the president’s pitches has been sending a $2,000 rebate check to working Americans, pulled from the hundreds of billions of tariff revenue the country has brought in under his century-high duties.

As the economic impacts of those tariffs have set in, Trump has suggested using tariff revenue for a whole range of relief for different groups of Americans, from bailing out farmers, to paying for nutrition assistance and troop salaries during the government shutdown. But because tariff revenue goes into the general Treasury fund, any use of the more than $200 billion collected this year would have to be determined by Congress.

“It's something that will require legislation,” Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House on Thursday morning. However, Hassett said that “if you look at how much tariff revenue has been coming in, then there would actually be enough room to cover those checks and not go into the rest of the budget.”

The White House, Hassett added, is “actively studying the matter.”

Fiscal conservatives in Congress, however, aren’t yet convinced that’s the best way to spend the country’s spiking tariff revenue. The Trump administration previously argued projected income from the duties could help offset the costs of Republicans’ $3.4 trillion tax and spending package passed earlier this year, as it sought to win over deficit hawks.

And many GOP lawmakers blamed direct payments from the federal government to workers during the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the drivers of runaway inflation under former President Joe Biden.

“It wouldn't have the same effect as the Covid money, because it's smaller, but still, you're basically boosting demand into a restricted supply environment,” said Scott Lincicome, an economist at the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute who supports free trade. “And you're sure to see inflationary bubbles pop up.”

Asked whether he’d vote in support of tariff rebates, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said, “I’d have to see how it affected the debt.”

“People are hurting and it’s clear that the tariffs … it’s going to cause some pain. But I think we will turn the corner on it, Burchett added.”

The administration has yet to determine a specific plan for how the tariff checks would work, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has floated limiting the rebates to Americans earning less than $100,000 a year.

"President Trump’s tariffs are resetting global commerce, securing manufacturing investments, and safeguarding our national and economic security – and they’re also raising billions in revenue for the federal government," said a White House official, granted anonymity to comment on ongoing policy discussions. "The Administration is committed to putting this money to good use for the American people. Given we have not yet revealed any specifics here, back-of-the-envelope analyses about the dividends are baseless speculation."

Any action on tariff checks is unlikely before the Supreme Court determines whether Trump had the authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world using a 1977 emergency law — a vehicle he’s used to collect at least $88 billion in revenue so far.

Without that immediacy, many Republicans were reluctant to engage on the idea.

“I don’t know,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). “If I paid attention to every single thing the president said, I’d have no other time in my day.”