U.S. President Donald Trump said as much in an interview with One America News, according to Yahoo.com. “They’re just starting to kick in, but ultimately, your tariffs are going to be over a trillion dollars a year,” Trump said, adding that the funds would be used, first, “we’re paying down debt, because people have allowed the debt to go crazy.” After that, “we also might make a distribution to the people, almost like a dividend to the people of America. We’re thinking maybe $1,000 to $2,000—it’d be great.”
Reality, however, is somewhat different than Trump’s wishes. For the first three quarters of 2025, about $215 billion have actually been collected in tariff revenues. At that rate, the total for the year would come in at about $290. Other estimates (Tax Policy Center, Tax Foundation) are that anywhere from $2.3 to $2.8 trillion could be collected over the next decade—i.e., about $250 billion per year.
