WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is currently considering a $2,000 tariff dividend proposal suggested by the president. However, Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin has voiced his apprehension, asserting that the nation “can’t afford” such a plan.

Speaking with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Johnson underscored the urgency of addressing the country’s deficit issues, suggesting that incoming tariff revenue should be directed towards this goal rather than funding direct payments to citizens.

“We must tackle the deficit problem. We are essentially operating on borrowed time,” Johnson explained to Bartiromo. “Any revenue generated from tariffs should be allocated towards reducing the deficit, rather than being used for cash payouts to Americans.”

When questioned about his stance on the proposal, Johnson was firm in his position, saying, “We can’t afford it. I wish we were in a situation where we could return money to the American public, but that’s not our current reality.”

“We’ll have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year,” he continued. “President Trump had deficits about $800 billion. Obama, in his last four years, $550 billion a year. Now we’re $2 trillion? Completely unacceptable. We have to start focusing on that and doing something about it.” 

On Monday, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that the president has the plan “on his desk” and that his legislative team “will figure out the best way to do it.” 

Last week, the White House confirmed it was eyeing possibilities to bypass Congress on the proposal. Several Trump administration officials have warned that the rebate check proposal would require congressional legislation. 

During a Bloomberg event last week, Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair said that the White House will look “as hard as possible” to see if they can issue the $2,000 rebate checks without a green light from Congress. Blair, however, did express skepticism about the pathway. 

“The law is the law. I think that the most likely outcome is that it requires an act of Congress.” 

As of now, the idea of Congress passing a bill to allow the $2,000 dividend checks seems like a long shot. 

Earlier this summer, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley introduced the American Worker Rebate Act for a stimulus check, but the idea fell flat among his colleagues in the Republican-controlled Congress. Several Republican senators shot down the tariff rebate check plan publicly, calling the proposal everything from “a bad idea” to “insane.” Most conservatives instead want to use any tariff revenue to pay down the massive national debt. 

Despite repeated talks about the plan, the future of the president’s tariff policy remains in the Supreme Court’s hands. 

In a hearing earlier this month, the justices sounded skeptical about the Trump administration’s assertion of sweeping power to declare national emergencies to justify the tariffs. Trump has bypassed Congress, which has authority under the Constitution to levy taxes, including tariffs.

If the court strikes down the tariffs, the Trump administration may have to refund the tariffs to importers, making dividend checks to American families no longer even a possibility. 

Much remains unclear about the dividend check proposal. 

Several officials, including Trump, have said the checks will be for “working families” and for “moderate” and “middle” income families. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the checks would have income limits.

The president also said the proposed checks could arrive by mid-2026. 

“We have thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income. We are going to pay down debt,” he said to reporters. “We have a lot of money from tariffs; if we didn’t have tariffs, this country would be in serious trouble.” 

Trump has boasted that “trillions of dollars” are coming into the U.S. from tariffs, but budget experts say the math doesn’t quite add up.

John Ricco, an analyst with the Budget Lab at Yale University, estimates that Trump’s tariffs will raise $200 billion to $300 billion in annual revenue. But a $2,000 dividend — if it went to all Americans, including children — would cost $600 billion. 

“It’s clear that the revenue coming in would not be adequate,” he said.

As of Sept. 30, the federal government had generated $195 billion in tariff revenue. 

This isn’t the first time Trump has pushed the idea of a payout for Americans due to his policies. 

In February, the Republican president said he liked the idea of giving some of the savings from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, back to Americans as a dividend. 

At the time, Trump said his administration was considering a plan in which 20% of the savings from DOGE federal budget cuts would go to U.S. citizens, and the other 20% would help pay down the national debt. The plan never materialized, and months later, Musk left the DOGE office.