REUTERS, Washington

US President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States faced an economic and national security disaster if the Supreme Court ruled against his use of an emergency powers law to impose sweeping tariffs against nearly every country.

Trump said his administration planned to issue a $2,000 payment to lower- and middle-income Americans using the tariff dividends, while using the remaining proceeds to lower US debt.

Trump, who has previously floated the idea of using tariff revenues to pay what he calls a “dividend” to lower-earning Americans, repeated it in a Truth Social post on Sunday and during remarks to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “We’re going to issue a dividend to our middle income people and lower income people - about $2,000 - and we’re going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt,” Trump said during the swearing-in of his new envoy to India, Sergio Gor.

Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, told reporters at the White House on Monday the administration had initially thought it needed to use the tariff revenues solely for deficit reduction, but now saw a chance to move forward with a dividend payment due to what he called “a big surge in tax revenues.”

Trump’s poll numbers have weakened in recent months amid growing concerns about the economy and ongoing frustration about inflation, with many voters citing affordability as part of their decision to vote Democrats into office in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City.