Donald Trump needs to stop the ‘free money’ madness — not fuel it

President Donald Trump’s talk of a $2,000 tariff “dividend” for nearly every American sounds tempting, but more “free money” from Uncle Sam is a recipe for the ruin of the republic.

The prez should drop the talk because walking the walk would yield disaster.

“A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” Trump posted Sunday.

Yet the president has no authority to single-handedly authorize checks of any amount.

He’d need Congress’ OK, and plenty of Republican lawmakers oppose such rebates; if he works with Democrats to get them, they’ll take most of the credit.

Even his own Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, sought to throw cold water on the idea, clarifying that the “dividend” could come from tax cuts in the already-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Trump claims he’d get the money for them from tariff revenue, yet the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that, if payments are designed like COVID-era subsidies, they’d run about $600 billion — twice what tariffs are projected to bring in.

The national debt already tops $38 trillion — and growing.

This also sets a terrible precedent: The next Democrat to take the White House would surely invent another excuse for mass giveaways, just as President Joe Biden doubled down on Trump’s COVID stimulus checks even though the recovery was well underway.

Indeed, like Biden’s freebies, “tariff dividends” might well fuel inflation — at a time when prices are already climbing thanks to . . . Trump’s tariffs.

Yes, businesses may be eating some tariff costs, but they’re yielding higher consumer costs: As we noted last week, Amazon prices are up nearly 14% this year, Target’s 5.5% and Walmart’s 5.3%.

After last week’s electoral sweep by Democrats, Trump seems to realize his tariffs are causing political damage, at least, so he’s toying with the “easy fix” of bribing voters with “rebates.”

But such giveaways won’t breed gratitude so much as the expectation that the feds should be regularly handing cash.

Trump’s overall economic policies are sound; if he wants them to pay off faster for average Americans, he should look at ways to double down on them.

Falling back on freebies only tells voters he lacks faith in his own achievements.