Trump-Backed $2,000 Tariff Dividends Could Cost $600 Billion Per Year, Group Says

Tariffs have raised around $100 billion so far and are projected to raise around $300 billion per year, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Blank checks are processed at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia on July 18, 2011. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

A prominent think tank warned on Monday that a Trump administration proposal to send $2,000 dividends from recent tariffs could cost as much as $600 billion per year.

“Assuming these dividends are designed like the COVID-era Economic Impact Payments, which went to both adults and children, we estimate each round of payments would cost about $600 billion,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a Washington-based organization that describes itself as nonpartisan, said in an analysis issued on Nov. 10.