From military checks to child care: Here’s everything Trump has said his tariffs will pay for
President Donald Trump said Wednesday his administration is starting to send checks in the amount of $1,776 to nearly 1.5 million US service members, using money from the “billions of dollars” he says the government has collected through his tariffs.
111212
1
ALEXEY
“Because of tariffs, along with the just-passed One Big, Beautiful Bill, tonight I am also proud to announce that more than … 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call ‘Warrior Dividend,’ before Christmas,” Trump said Wednesday night in a televised address to the nation.
But he alone can’t decide how the revenue from his sweeping tariffs gets spent.
All revenue the government collects, whether through ordinary taxes or tariffs, goes into a general fund managed by the Treasury department that is then used to pay the government’s expenses, such as distributing tax refunds. Any other use of the money has to be approved by Congress, which, so far, hasn’t happened for tariff collections.
“Money is fungible,” a White House spokesperson told CNN. “Just because Congress didn’t specifically appropriate tariff revenue to be used for the Warrior Dividend doesn’t change the fact that the government has more money available (because of tariffs) to pay for these sort of initiatives.” Congress did, however, sign off on Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which earmarked money for the checks.