The 79-year-old U.S. president appeared momentarily confused when questioned about the proposed $2,000 payments.
Donald Trump has drawn criticism after seemingly forgetting his pledge to issue “$2,000 checks to Americans.” Over the past several months, Trump had repeatedly promoted the idea of tariff rebate payments, saying late last year that many Americans could receive the money by mid-2026.
He argued that the plan was feasible because of the revenue generated by his trade tariffs, even suggesting that the U.S. was earning so much from them that he could afford to send every American a $2,000 check. However, there are now doubts about whether such payments will happen anytime soon.
During an interview in the Oval Office last week with The New York Times, correspondents Katie Rogers and Tyler Pager questioned Trump about the tariffs and reminded him of his earlier promises to deliver the rebate checks, prompting visible uncertainty in his response.
Rogers asked: “You’ve promised $2,000 checks to Americans based off of your tariff revenues. When can they expect those?”
However, Trump, seemingly baffled, responded with: “I did do that? When did I do that?”
“Well, I mean, your -,” the journalist asked, but the world leader interjected to say: “Yeah, I’m thinking. Well, I did $1,776 for the military.”
SEE CONTINUES ON THE NEXT PAGE
