'Should Have Done This Years Ago': Trump Defends New Tariffs, Hints At Dividends For Americans

Last Updated:August 04, 2025, 08:26 IST

Donald Trump remarked that the US should have imposed such tariffs years ago, claiming it would have brought in substantial revenue earlier.

A file photo of US President Donald Trump (AP)

Days after Donald Trump unveiled his revised list of tariffs on more than a dozen countries, the US President on Monday defended his move and said the United States should have done the same years ago.

Speaking to reporters, Trump also said that with the tariffs imposed, the United States will have a lot of money coming in.

Trump also said some Americans could get some kind of dividend or distribution of money as a result of tariffs being imposed on US trading partners.

“We’re going to pay down debt. We have a lot of money coming in, much more money than the country’s ever seen, by hundreds of billions of dollars," Donald Trump told reporters.

“There could be a distribution or a dividend to the people of our country, I would say for people that would be middle-income people and lower-income people, we could do a dividend, but one of the things we’re gonna be doing is reducing debt," the US President said.

“But we have hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our country now, we should’ve done this many years ago."

“And I did it in my first term with China, we didn’t get to the rest because Covid hit. But China was paying us hundreds of millions of dollars in tariffs, and we did it then. Then [Joe] Biden screwed it all," he added.

News world 'Should Have Done This Years Ago': Trump Defends New Tariffs, Hints At Dividends For Americans

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