President Trump said on Friday that he is considering giving taxpayers a rebate due to the billions (or trillions) of dollars the United States is set to make from Tariffs and deals with trading partners.
“We have so much money coming in from tariffs that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice,” he said. “The big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate.”
Trump spoke to reporters this morning about his August 1 trade deadline, where he plans to impose steep tariffs on countries that do not make a deal with the United States.
Already, the President has announced several deals following a plethora of letters he sent to foreign leaders, outlining the deadline and current tariffs countries will face.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines had agreed to open their markets to U.S. trade, with Indonesia and the Philippines agreeing to eliminate tariffs on U.S. goods.
Japan agreed to invest $550 billion in the United States, “which will receive 90% of the Profits,” Trump said in a statement. Additionally, Japan will still pay 15% tariffs on imports to the United States.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a cabinet meeting earlier this month that he estimates the United States will take in “well over $300 billion” from tariffs “by the end of the year.”
Days later, new budget data showed that tariff revenues as a share of federal revenue had more than doubled, and tariffs created a surplus as opposed to a $71 billion deficit in June 2024 under Biden. U.S. customs duty collections for fiscal year 2025 had already topped $100 billion for the first time in history, with several months still to go.
Now, one week away from the August 1 deadline, Trump says American taxpayers “of a certain income level” might get a rebate as the President has already snagged well over $5 trillion in foreign and private manufacturing, AI, and energy investments in addition to the massive tariff revenue.
Trump has previously suggested that his External Revenue Service will focus on “people making less than $200,000 a year,” indicating that taxation could be “completely eliminated” for this income bracket. The External Revenue Service, which Trump announced on January 14, 2025, will “collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources,” he said.
“Our country was a dead country. Was a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And don’t you feel it?” Trump said to reporters at the White House.
WATCH:
Reporter: When you send out those letters, do you believe that will bring some certainty to the financial markets?
Trump: When those letters, when those letters go out— they’re a page and a half, that means they have a deal, it’s done, they pay that tariff, and that is a contract, essentially. And they can come into the country, they’re going to pay a tariff. I’m going to keep it minimal. I’m going to keep it, you know, I’m not looking to hurt countries. I could do that too, but I’m not looking to do that. But when that letter goes out, that’s a deal, and we’ll be sending maybe close to 200 of those letters out. Don’t forget, we have a lot of countries, so we’re going to be sending out almost 200 of those letters. But once those letters go out, we have a deal. Now, we sent some to— we sent one to Japan, we sent one to EU, and they came back and negotiated a deal. I think EU has got a pretty good chance of making a deal.
Our country was a dead country. Was a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And don’t you feel it?
Reporter: With all of that, revenue coming in tens and tens of billions of dollars, do you think there is the possibility of a rebate to the American public in terms of all of that money?
Trump: We’re thinking about that actually. We have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate, but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we’re thinking about a rebate. That’s a very good question! You just made a lot of news. We’re thinking about a rebate because we have so much money coming in from tariffs that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be very nice.
