President Donald Trump said he is considering sending rebate checks to Americans using revenue from tariff increases his administration is imposing on U.S. trading partners.
“We’re thinking about that actually — we have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate,” Trump told reporters on Friday at the White House as he left for a trip to Scotland. “A little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.”
Trump also suggested that using the revenue to address U.S. debt was another option, adding that “the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate.”
U.S. revenue from customs duties this fiscal year surpassed $100 billion for the first time, highlighting the higher tariffs Trump has levied in his bid to reshape global trade flows and bring more manufacturing to the U.S.
U.S. Treasury data show that customs duties have indeed surged to a record, with inflows reaching $113 billion over the nine months through June. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday there was a chance of taking in $2.8 trillion over a decade.
While customs duties are giving a boost to U.S. revenues and Trump regularly casts tariffs as being paid by foreign trading partners, data show those increases are being shouldered by American businesses and consumers.
The intake also would pale in comparison to U.S. fiscal deficits. The shortfall for the first nine months of the 2025 fiscal year came to $1.34 trillion, up slightly from the same period a year ago. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office earlier this week said Trump’s new tax law will add $3.4 trillion to deficits over the coming decade.
In January, the CBO warned that the government was on a path to hit a post-World War II record debt-to-GDP ratio in just four years. Those were projections that assumed tax cuts would expire at year-end, rather than be extended and even added to, as was done later in the “one big beautiful bill” that Trump signed into law this month.
