Tariff Dividends: Down Payment on a Golden Economic Age
Give regular Americans "skin in the game" on global trade...
Two words define America in 2025: impatience and fatigue.
They describe our culture — short attention spans, constant scrolling, ongoing agitation. They also describe our economy — families impatient for financial relief – and fatigued from years of broken promises.
Yet even in this jaded environment, bold gestures still cut through.
Americans will focus when they see a dramatic public commitment. Right now, Republicans must launch a policy and messaging campaign: the Golden Era for the economy. We must “renew vows” between American policymakers and the people, built on both immediate relief and a long-term economic reorientation.
Tariff Dividend Checks — Relief Today
Our consumer market is the most valuable in the world. If foreign companies want access, they need to pay for it. Just like the best seats at a theater or a stadium, premium pricing must guard access to the crown jewel consumer base. As such, these levies should be policies, and not merely bargaining chips.
For adversary nations, the levies may extend to far higher levels, of course. But even for allies, America should demand a “cover charge” to enter our market. Of course, any country or firm who wants to avoid such fees has a simple option: make your products here. Buy American equipment and hire American labor. Voila, no tariffs!
But what do we do with this revenue, with this windfall that already fills government coffers, right now?
Tariff revenues shouldn’t vanish into bureaucracy—they should come straight back to you as dividend checks.
Not welfare. Not redistribution. It’s your rightful share of the market you sustain. The world pays rent. You cash the check.
Certainly, it is sensible and prudent to use a large portion of the tariff revenues to pay down America’s stifling national debt. But given the profligacy of Washington, as shown in recent legislation, please spare the American people some lecture about fiscal discipline! The revenues should be used for both purposes: put earned cash into hurting citizens’ pockets AND make serious payments against our debt.
After years of enduring the inflation scourge of Bidenomics, Americans are understandably scarred concerning their finances. Huge supermajorities now report that they no longer believe the American Dream is attainable. My own recent polling shows that only about 1/5th of Americans believe that the Reconciliation package, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” will help them personally.
Even though President Trump inherited an awful economic handoff from feckless Biden, the current political reality is harsh: voters now blame this administration for prices they cannot afford, especially at the grocery store. As such, this is no time for groundless happy talk. Instead, it is time for action.
As President Trump rightly restructures global trade to benefit regular Americans, we need to show those workers the tangible, real-world benefits, and do it right now! Give American laborers something they have never had before, a seat at the table of global trade negotiations and real “skin in the game” when it comes to trade policies.
There is some very material good economic news, lately, to be sure. Most encouraging is the growth in real wages, meaning pay adjusted for inflation. That measure declined under Biden for a staggering 24 straight months, an economic disaster for working people. But even today, too many Americans feel trapped, and reflect the anxiety of working harder for a lower standard of living.
In time, rising real wages will return Americans to a place of confidence, the kind of broad success Trump compelled in his first term. But for now Americans are understandably shell-shocked from an economy that has been brutal for people who do not own substantial assets.
Unlike the Dems, who talk a big game about workers but then do every possible favor for globalist oligarchs, how about our movement delivers for the middle class? It is high time for quarterly checks providing cash dividends from tariff revenues.
Looking at electoral politics, this reform is an imperative. Incumbent parties typically struggle anyway in midterms, and given the present economic mood of the populace, things look dire for maintaining GOP control of the Congress.
Those of us on the populist right must recognize this severe threat…and take action. If we do not, undoubtedly Hakeem Jeffries as speaker would use the power of that gavel to impeach President Trump, no matter how ridiculous and scurrilous their accusations might be. Let’s avoid that entire saga.
Paying tariff dividends will build tremendous economic goodwill and political loyalty.
Our nation prepares to enter a hugely consequential year – the 250th semiquincentennial birthday celebration of our independence. As a “birthday” present to the American people, let’s deliver down payments on a new golden era of shared American success and prosperity.
Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote.
He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, plus a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.