Trump Told Americans They Were Getting $2,000 Tariff Checks; Now He's Adding 2 Key Words to His Promise

Donald Trump doesn’t sound so sure about a previous promise that most Americans would be receiving a $2,000 check from the government.

The 79-year-old president floated the idea of checks totaling “at least $2000 a person” in a November 2025 post on Truth Social, saying that they’d go to all but “high income people” and would be funded by the “trillions of dollars” that he claimed to be making off tariffs that he’s enforced on foreign nations.

At the time, he dubbed critics of the tariffs “FOOLS.”

Speaking to The New York Times in January 2026, he threw the idea of the checks into question, seemingly having forgotten about his promise.

“I did do that? When did I do that?” he asked before implying that he was talking about the $1,776 checks he promised members of the military the month prior.

Trump then insisted that he would not need Congressional permission if he were to give Americans these checks and said that they could be coming “toward the end of the year.”

However, he’s raising even more questions about the money in his latest interview.

Keep reading to find out more…

Appearing on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday (February 4), the president insisted that he was “the only one [who] can” make the checks a reality.

However, now he’s stressing that he “may” give the checks and that he “can” make the promise.

Asked if he could “promise” that the checks were a reality, he said, “Sure. I can — I can do that.”

“I haven’t made the commitment yet, but I may make the commitment,” he added, later adding, “I may be doing that … with regard to the entire population.

If you missed it, Trump recently offered an explanation for viral videos of him seemingly struggling on the steps of Air Force One.