Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered the clearest picture yet of who might receive President Donald Trump's proposed $2,000 tariff checks, and the answer is working families with an income cap.

Income Limits Coming for Tariff Dividend Plan

Speaking on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo, Bessent said the checks "would be for working families. We will have an income limit." While he didn't specify exact thresholds, he hinted during a Fox & Friends appearance last week that the administration is eyeing income caps around $100,000 for families.

Trump floated the idea last Sunday, proposing to send "at least" $2,000 to most Americans using revenue from his tariff program. The goal? Help chip away at the country's roughly $38.12 trillion national debt while putting money in people's pockets.

Congressional Approval Required

Here's the catch: Bessent made clear that any tariff dividend needs congressional approval before a single check goes out. There's precedent for this kind of program. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress approved three rounds of stimulus payments. Two of those were signed by Trump, with full checks going to individuals earning up to $75,000 and couples up to $150,000, with phased payments above those thresholds. In total, more than 476 million payments totaling $814 billion were distributed, according to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

The Math Problem

But there's a funding issue. Through the first three quarters of this year, the Treasury Department collected $195 billion in tariff duties, according to a September report. That's nowhere near enough to send $2,000 to most Americans and simultaneously reduce the national debt.

The Cost of Tariffs Shows Up Elsewhere

And then there's the irony: the tariffs meant to fund these checks have already hit consumers' wallets. Economists point out that the same levies raising revenue are also raising prices. Yale's Budget Lab estimates that consumers now face an average effective tariff rate of about 18%, the highest since the 1930s, after the administration imposed broad tariffs on imports earlier this year. Researchers say companies have passed much of those costs directly to U.S. households, with lower-income families bearing the brunt of the increases.