Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, is proposing $2,000 payments to Americans making under $100,000

Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, is proposing $2,000 payments for Americans earning under $100,000, arguing the measure would help offset President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which he says have “jacked up prices.”

“Trump’s blanket tariffs are hurting American families,” Khanna told Newsweek in an email Thursday. “I’m looking at how we can provide stimulus checks to working class Americans based on the unfair tax collected on them.”

Why It Matters
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has repeatedly imposed, paused, and reinstated a range of tariffs on U.S. trading partners at different rates, framing them as tools to combat illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and trade deficits. The tariffs have also contributed to sharp swings in the stock market.

Consumer prices rose 2.7% in July compared with a year earlier, above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Excluding food and energy, core inflation was 3.1%.

Earlier this year, Trump floated the idea of rebates for Americans funded by tariff revenue, saying the U.S. was bringing in “so much money” from tariffs. On Thursday, he told One America News he was considering rebate checks of “maybe $1,000 to $2,000” per person.

What to Know
In a video shared on his social media, Khanna said he was proposing the legislation because tariffs amount to an “unfair tax on Americans,” leading to “higher prices for our groceries, higher prices for our housing, [and] higher cost-of-living.”

He added: “We should take this tariff revenue that has been an unfair tax and give it back to working families so that they can pay the bills.”

Khanna also told Newsweek that “the cost of groceries and basic needs are going up,” noting that he and Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, have introduced a bipartisan bill to repeal coffee tariffs. The “No Coffee Tax Act” was introduced earlier this month.