Scott Bessent said the $2,000 tariff rebate would likely only go to Americans earning under $100,000 a year

Americans pulling in over $100,000 a year won’t see a dime from the proposed $2,000 tariff rebate, at least not under the plan President Trump’s administration is workshopping.

Scott Bessent, who now runs the Treasury, told Fox & Friends on Wednesday that the team is actively weighing an income cap that would leave higher earners out of the picture.

“Well, there are a lot of options here that the president’s talking about a $2,000 rebate and those — that would be for families making less than, say, $100,000,” Scott said when asked about who would qualify. He was quick to stress that no final decision has been made: “We haven’t. It’s in discussion.”

That line drew more clarity around Trump’s earlier pitch, which first came up after his Supreme Court hearing over his use of “trafficking” and “reciprocal” tariffs. Trump had thrown out the idea of a $2,000 dividend per person but didn’t explain how it would work, how it’d be paid, or who exactly would get it.

Scott jumped on ABC’s This Week shortly after, saying the payment “could come in lots of forms” and “could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing.” He tied that to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed earlier this year and included tax cuts aimed at middle- and lower-income earners.

Trump’s tax bill funds rebates, kids get savings accounts

On Wednesday, Scott doubled down, saying the same bill is paying for a bunch of things, including “no tax and tips, overtime, Social Security,” and that it’s also behind the “big refunds you’re going to see.” He also flagged something else buried in that law—Trump accounts. These are government-created savings accounts for kids under 18, rolling out between 2025 and 2028, and each one comes with a $1,000 deposit. Every child under that age bracket gets one. But those accounts are separate from the tariff rebate plan.

Trump, during a Sunday statement, had teased the rebate again, saying, “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high-income people!) will be paid to everyone.”

But delivering on that would take more than just presidential talk—it’d need Congress to sign off, and Republicans aren’t all on board.

Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Senator backed by Vice President JD Vance, shot the idea down outright, telling reporters in July, “It’ll never pass. We have a $37 trillion debt.”

The IEEPA tariffs, which Trump used to justify the rebate, have only brought in $90 billion through September 23, and that’s across their full timeline. Compare that to the COVID-era $2,000 payments, which were estimated to cost $464 billion, and the math doesn’t hold.

Even if Trump limits the payment to people earning under $100K, the total cost would still sit around $300 billion, according to Erica York, who works as vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

GOP faces legal threats, voter pressure, and rising costs

If the Supreme Court rules against Trump’s use of the IEEPA tariffs, it could trigger a full refund to importers, creating another mess in the budget.

All duties combined, including non-IEEPA ones, brought in $195.9 billion for the government in fiscal 2025, through August 31, and yet still, that’s nowhere near enough to cover the kind of payout Trump is hinting at.

The tariffs themselves have had a shaky run this year. Trump’s strategy has bounced between pulling back and pushing forward, depending on trade talks with other countries. That’s why some White House officials think fiscal 2026 could bring in more revenue if Trump keeps the tariffs rolling.

But this rebate proposal isn’t happening in a vacuum. Last week’s elections saw Democrats sweep in several key races, riding a wave of voter frustration over inflation and affordability.

Trump’s administration is scrambling to show it has answers. Scott, defending the president’s record, said inflation has “leveled out” and will “start turning down.”

He blamed President Biden’s job market, saying too many of those were government roles that didn’t boost real incomes. “You can’t get real wage growth from a government job,” Scott said. “Real wages are going to increase.”

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