- - Will President Trump’s New Stimulus Checks Beat The COVID Checks?

Maurie BackmanNovember 12, 2025 at 6:54 PM

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President Trump proposed $2,000 tariff rebate checks but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says no specific stimulus proposal is in the works.

Yale Budget Lab found current tariff policies could cost each U.S. household $1,800 on average in 2025.

COVID stimulus checks totaled up to $3,200 per person across three rounds between 2020 and 2021.

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When economic times get tough, lawmakers sometimes come to the rescue in the form of stimulus checks. And now, President Trump is proposing a $2,000 tariff rebate check to help Americans cope with the higher costs that have resulted since tariff policies took hold.

You may be wondering how these tariff rebate checks, if approved, will compare to the stimulus checks Americans received during the pandemic. Here's what you .

What stimulus aid looked like during the pandemic

In 2020, the U.S. unemployment rate soared to a record high as stay-at-home orders forced countless businesses to shutter. Lawmakers reacted fairly quickly by boosting unemployment benefits to help jobless workers better keep up with their bills. They also approved an initial round of stimulus funding under the CARES Act.

The CARES Act allowed eligible Americans to receive stimulus checks of up to $1,200 apiece. Later on in 2020, a second stimulus check worth up to $600 was approved.

The final piece of the COVID stimulus puzzle came in 2021, when lawmakers passed the American Rescue Plan. That allowed eligible Americans to receive stimulus payments of up to $1,400.

All told, between the three COVID stimulus rounds, Americans were eligible to receive up to $3,200 per person. Some households, however, received a lot more, since qualifying children were eligible for stimulus funds, too. Plus, a number of states created their own stimulus programs during and after the pandemic.

What a tariff stimulus check might look like now

President Trump has proposed sending Americans a $2,000 stimulus that would serve as a tariff rebate check. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, has told news outlets that there is no specific stimulus proposal in the works.

But perhaps there should be.

Many Americans are struggling financially in the wake of lingering inflation and higher costs being driven by tariffs. The Budget Lab at Yale found that current tariff policies could cost each U.S. household $1,800 on average in 2025 alone.

All of this is happening as expiring premium tax credit cause millions of Americans to lose their enhanced healthcare subsidies. That could drive up the cost of health insurance substantially, adding to Americans' pain.

But as easy as it may be to justify another round of stimulus checks, it's important to remember that historically, they've been used as a means of pulling the economy out of a slump. The higher costs Americans are facing today may be brutal, but they're not necessarily an indication that the economy is in poor shape.

That said, the government shutdown has delayed a fair amount of economic data. Once it becomes available, Americans may get a better sense of how the economy is doing.

Chances are, things aren't bad enough to warrant a stimulus round in 2025. But could aid be on the table for 2026? That's a possibility, depending on how economic conditions play out.

For now, it's best not to bank on a tariff stimulus check, as nice as it may be to end up on the receiving end of a $2,000 rebate.

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Source: “AOL Money”