Wall Street Journal rejects idea of Trump’s $2,000 dividend: “Hail Mary”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board criticized President Trump’s proposal to provide $2,000 tariff rebate checks to most Americans, calling it a “Hail Mary.”
“President Trump faces a major tariff problem: His border taxes are raising the prices of goods subject to the tariffs, they are unpopular with voters, and the Supreme Court may rule that his ‘emergency’ tariffs are illegal,” the Wall Street Journal board said Sunday.
In a post on Sunday Truth Social, Trump said every American — except for “high-income” individuals — would receive a $2,000 dividend from revenues collected by the federal government from tariffs it imposed on foreign trading partners.
As of September, the Treasury Department had collected $195 billion in tariffs this year, an increase of 250%, or $118 billion, from fiscal year 2024.
The president also said his administration would use the tariffs to pay off the $38.12 trillion national debt. However, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called the conflicting policy proposals a “contradiction,” noting that sending rebate checks to most Americans would increase the national debt.
Neither the White House nor the Treasury Department specified which income categories would be eligible for the dividend, or how much it would cost the country.
Since the president imposed sweeping tariffs in April, businesses have passed on much of the cost to consumers. An analysis by Goldman Sachs in October found that US consumers will bear 55% of the costs of tariffs this year.
Trump “is trying to ease the pain of tariffs with direct payments for which he can take credit,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board said, citing the economic and political costs of tariffs.
“This is a new version of the old income redistribution game of taxing people too much and then trying to appease them with tax breaks or one-time cash payments,” the board added. “Democrats do this all the time with child tax credits and other benefits to special interest groups.”
The Trump administration defended the tariffs before the Supreme Court last week, arguing that the president has the authority to impose the tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
