Has the Trump administration proposed payment of a 2025 economic stimulus check to Americans, as multiple social media posts claim? No, that's not true: Viral social media posts circulating in February 2025 built traffic by spreading the rumor that stimulus checks of up to $8,000 were soon to be distributed. But there is no public record of President Donald Trump or White House officials proposing a new round of stimulus in any amount.
The rumor was discussed in multiple posts similar to a February 17, 2025, video on TikTok (archived here) under the title "Stimulus check talk is on the table!" It opened:
"So, stimulus checks are on the table, $8,000 per person."
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 19 00:49:24 2025 UTC)
Some of the rumor posts link the idea to the $814 billion paid out to individuals in 2020 and 2021 under the American Rescue Plan and two other economic recovery programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lead Stories searched the White House database of official statements and found (archived here) no mention of a 2025 stimulus program for Americans, as is shown by the screenshot below:
(Source: Whitehouse.gov screenshot taken on Tue Feb 19 01:20:00 2025 UTC)
Similarly, searching manually, Lead Stories found no mention of a 2025 stimulus payout on Donald Trump's Truth Social account (archived here) or his Instagram account. Nor in an online search of his X account, (archived here).
A search of Google, using the terms "Trump AND stimulus," found no reports of a presidential proposal, only debunks of the other rumor-spreading social media posts about the idea and mentions of 2021 tax refunds linked to the pandemic-era stimulus program
More fact checks about claims involving Donald Trump can be found here.
