In 2025, President Donald Trump deployed his tariff plan, but it is doing little to help any of the MAGA voters much less the rest of the country. His solution, according to one CNN discussion, is simply to send people money to make it better.
CNN host Brian Abel played a supercut of Trump's promises of sending money to people before noting, "I haven't received mine yet."
Harvard University economist Jeffrey A. Frankel warned it isn't checks that are on the way. In fact, he said, the worst is yet to come.
Axios economics reporter Courtenay Brown refused to answer whether it's a "real economic plan" or not, calling it only a "fascinating theme."
"We're seeing President Trump lean on a strategy he used during the pandemic that worked out well for him. Just send people money. People don't feel good about the economy. Just send them money. The problem is —" Brown was cut off.
"The over-plan, right?" Abel laughed.
" Exactly! The fiscal reality is just not there this time. We've heard the Treasury Secretary say that if President Trump wanted to do something like a tariff dividend, that would require the act of Congress," Brown explained.
"There's this really interesting tension between President Trump's tariffs that the administration has implicitly said are pushing up prices," she continued. "They acknowledge that because they rolled them back in an effort to address affordability concerns with respect to groceries. But you can't roll them back if you're also depending on that pot of money to send people checks."
Abel noted that if checks ever go out, he wonders who will end up paying for it in the end.
Trump's administration has already been caught once fudging the numbers to make the faltering economy look better.