WOW: President Trump Says He Will Give Americans $2,000 Tariff Checks WITHOUT Congress

President Trump just gave us an update on the $2,000 tariff dividend checks that he has repeatedly promised to give the American people.

First of all, he once again stated that he is planning on establishing some kind of an income limit on who will get these checks.

He was not specific about what exactly the income limit will be or when we can expect to receive the dividend checks.

But, he did say something very interesting.

President Trump says that he believes he will be able to get the payments out without approval from Congress.

Watch for yourself:

🚨 HOLY CRAP. President Trump says he's going to give out the $2,000 tariff dividend check to middle class Americans WITHOUT Congress

This is HUGE for the midterms!

"$2K dividend and pay down debt. We'd set an income limit. We can make a payment to the people WITHOUT Congress!" pic.twitter.com/c7aUDVMcHq

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 20, 2026

With the COVID stimulus checks, Congressional approval was required.

The New York Post noted:

When similar checks were distributed in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress needed to approve the distributions.

The legislative branch controls the federal purse. And several Republican lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the checks, and instead suggested Trump should be focusing on slashing the federal budget deficit.

Looming over the tariff dividends are concerns that the Supreme Court could strike down Trump’s “trafficking” and “reciprocal” tariffs.

Trump imposed tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act but the high court is considering the legality of that action.

The ruling could come any day now.

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If the court rules against the president, it’s unclear where he would get the funds for the checks.

Trump has been pushing for checks to Americans for months, originally proposing the idea late last year, saying the money would come from the tariffs he imposed on other nations.

Checks didn’t appear in time for Christmas shopping but may serve Republicans better in this year’s midterm election as they fight to keep control of Congress.

However, dividend checks are very different from stimulus checks because the money comes from tariff revenue rather than taxpayer funds.

President Trump was already able to give out $1,776 payments to military members in December, without Congress.

This X user pointed out one possible route he could use to grant tariff dividend checks without needing Congressional approval:

President Trump won’t need Congress if he can have funds they’ve already appropriated distributed as “tariff dividends” by reframing the payments so they fit within the allocated budget. Similar was done to send $1,776 payments to active military members.

— Free the World 🇺🇲🌏🦅 (@PatriotVerity) January 20, 2026

If President Trump is able to pull this off without having to go through Congress, then we can surely expect them sooner rather than later!

During an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, President Trump estimated that the checks will go out toward the end of this year.

He also told the interviewer that he does not think he will have to get Congressional approval for the checks.

Here’s a transcript from that interview, from the NYT:

Tyler Pager

When will those Americans get those checks?

President Trump

Well, I am going to — 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.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Don’t you need Congress? Don’t you need Congress to help you with that?

President Trump

No, I don’t believe we do. We have it coming in from other sources.

How do you see it?