During his first term at the head of the White House, President Donald Trump sent a huge amount of stimulus checks to millions of American families who were going through economic hardships, especially in the coronavirus pandemic. During those years of the health crisis, the federal government distributed approximately $931 billion dollars in three rounds of payments.
Implemented under various laws from the Congress in Washington, including the CARES Act of 2020, these direct payments included various types of checks, in terms of their nature and amount distributed.
The federal government sent $931 billion in stimulus checks in the Trump administration
The federal government distributed approximately $931 billion in three rounds of payments, under the following main programs:
- The first round was $292 billion distributed starting in March 2020 through the CARES Act, and provided allocations of $1,200 per adult and $500 per dependent under age 17.
- The second round was implemented through the Economic Assistance and Security Act of December 2020, with payments of $600 per adult and dependents under 17 years of age. A total of $164,000 million was sent here.
- The third round sent in the Trump administration was the American Rescue Plan, from March 2021. This included payments of $1,400 per adult and dependent, including dependents over 17 years of age. The total budget for this plan was $475,000 million.
The state that received the most money in stimulus checks was California, followed by Texas, Florida, and New York. In relative terms, states with higher percentages of low-income people, such as Mississippi and Louisiana.
Who received the stimulus checks?
The stimulus checks targeted a wide range of people, but were particularly focused on people with adjusted gross incomes of up to $75,000 a year (or $150,000 for married couples). They were reduced proportionally for those earning more, to a maximum limit of $99,000 for individuals and $198,000 for couples.
The first two rounds included only Americans and legal residents with a valid Social Security number, excluding many undocumented people (although the third round included some mixed families, where one of the spouses was a citizen or legal resident). In that same round, the criteria were also expanded to include dependents over 17 years of age, such as university students or disabled family members. Retirees receiving Social Security benefits were also eligible, regardless of whether they filed tax returns or not.
Could we expect Trump to send stimulus checks in his second administration?
Recent TikTok posts from numerous accounts claim that Donald Trump could return to the practice of sending stimulus checks to boost the economy, at least in his first year. However, economists have come out to clarify that the nature of the stimulus checks is that they are issued when the economy is very bad, as was the case with the pandemic.
“Stimulus checks typically only arrive when the economy is in very bad shape and consumers need a boost to start spending money again,” LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s not really the case today.”
Although the majority of Americans say in surveys that the economy is bad, the numbers say that, in general, Joe Biden leaves it in a fairly healthy state, with notable GDP growth and inflation that remains around 2%, and an unemployment rate of just 4.1%.
Not a scenario for stimulus checks
Now, although Americans also believe that it was Trump who personally decided to send the checks, the truth is that the three rounds of payments were decisions of Congress. Trump put his name on a first batch of checks, and so many were convinced that it was his idea. “A president cannot unilaterally issue stimulus checks, and those sent during his last administration were largely the result of pressure from Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Channel noted.
It should also be clarified that the checks are issued by the IRS, after Congress approved these three rounds of payments, and for now, there is no law under debate or in the process of being approved, so the IRS will not send any checks stimulus in 2024 or within the first months of 2025: it is highly unlikely that this scenario will change.