Trump Is Asked if He’ll Commit to Sending $2K Tariff Checks He Promised. His Answer Raises More Questions

President Donald Trump said he could commit to sending Americans $2,000 tariff rebate checks, but stressed that he has not formally decided to do so.

In an interview with NBC Nightly News’ Tom Llamas on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Llamas asked Trump about the proposal of “$2,000 rebate checks for Americans from tariff revenue,” pressing for details on who would qualify and when payments might go out.

“We’d make it — I — I’m gonna — I’m looking at it very seriously,” Trump said, according to NBC News’ transcript. He added that he believed he was uniquely positioned to do it because tariff revenue was bringing in “hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Llamas followed up directly: “But you can promise some Americans will get those checks?”

“Oh yeah, sure. I can — I can do that. I haven’t made the commitment yet, but I may make the commitment,” Trump replied, before pivoting to discuss a separate payment he said he had already authorized for U.S. military servicemembers.

When pressed to clarify, Trump focused on the “Warrior Dividend” program, which he said was announced with the Department of Defense on Dec. 18. He said the funds came from the “Big Beautiful Bill,” citing the White House as the source for how the checks would be paid for.

Trump also explained why the servicemember amount was set at $1,776, saying it was based on the budget available and that he wanted to “take care of our military.” He then claimed he added $1 so the amount would reference a “very famous date,” pointing to the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Trump was previously asked about the same tariff rebate concept in a January interview with The New York Times White House correspondents Katie Rogers and Tyler Pager.

In that interview, Rogers said: “You’ve promised $2,000 checks to Americans based off of your tariff revenues. When can they expect those?”

Trump initially challenged the premise: “I did do that? When did I do that?” He then returned to the military payment, saying: “Yeah, I’m thinking. Well, I did $1,776 for the military.”

Pager then asked for a clearer timeline: “When will those Americans get those checks?”

“Well, I am going to,” Trump replied. “The tariff money is so substantial. That’s coming in, that I’ll be able to do $2,000 sometime. I would say toward the end of the year.”

When asked whether Congress would need to approve the payments, Trump said he did not believe so, arguing: “No, I don’t believe we do. We have it coming in from other sources.”

Trump first floated the idea of $2,000 tariff rebate checks in a Nov. 9 Truth Social post: “Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” he wrote.