Trump says ‘When did I do that?’ when pressed on $2K tariff checks
Donald Trump was questioned by the New York Times about when Americans can expect to receive $2,000 rebate checks which the president promised in early November.
However, after the question was asked, it appears that Trump briefly drew a blank.
"I did do that?" he said. "When did I do that?"
After the reporter began to clarify, the president interrupted to pivot to his recent "Warrior Dividend," a $1,776 payment sent to 1.5 million military service members in December 2025.
"Yeah, I'm thinking," Trump said. "Well, I did $1,776 for the military."
The reporter then asked again when he believes Americans will get the checks.
"Well, I am going to — the tariff money is so substantial," he said. "That's coming in, that I'll be able to do $2,000 sometime. I would say toward the end of the year."
The president then claimed that he won't need approval from Congress to distribute the money because it will be coming from "other sources."
Trump first announced the plan to send direct payments in the amount of $2,000 to most Americans in November, with funds coming from tariffs his administration imposed on foreign goods.
He announced the proposal on Truth Social , stating that high-income earners would be excluded from receiving payments.
"A dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high-income people!) will be paid to everyone," he said.
In 2025, the U.S. collected roughly $257 billion in tariff revenues, according to PolitiFact . Around $167 billion of that stemmed from tariffs Trump imposed in his second term.
The nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said on Nov. 10, 2025, that the government would need approximately $600 billion to issue checks to Americans who would qualify.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in November that no formal payment plan exists and suggested that benefits to Americans come through tax policy changes instead.
"It could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president's agenda," Bessent said in a November interview. "You know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Deductibility of auto loans."
The proposed payments follow the precedent set by the COVID-19 pandemic, where Americans received three rounds of stimulus payments totaling up to $1,200 in April 2020, $600 in December 2020, and $1,400 in March 2021.
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