Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that working Americans are set to get “very large refunds” next year as tax cuts that were enabled in the Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act are set to go into effect.
American workers haven’t yet adjusted their tax withholding, meaning that the refunds will be coming during the tax year, he said. After the refunds, their withholdings are likely to change so that less tax is taken from each paycheck, he said, adding that there will be a “real increase” in wages.
“The bill was passed in July, working Americans didn’t change their withholding, so they’re going to be getting very large refunds in the first quarter” of next year, the secretary stated.
“A lot of that will come as tax refunds at the beginning of the year,” Hassett said.
“We’re right now drilling more oil than we’ve ever done—ever before,” he said, adding that the price of gas is down. “Rent prices are down. Dairy prices are coming down very strongly.”
Speaking at a Mount Pocono casino in northeastern Pennsylvania, Trump said that his economic policies, including his widespread tariffs on imports, are creating jobs, boosting the stock market, and attracting increased investment into the United States.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that he is skeptical of Trump’s comments about the economy. In an interview with MS Now earlier this week, Shapiro said that the Trump administration’s policies are driving up prices for household items and “the normal staples that they need in their homes … those prices have dramatically increased on Donald Trump’s watch.”
Trump suggested at the rally and in previous interviews that Democrats are manufacturing a cost-of-living crisis for political gain. But he also conceded that “prices are too high.”
Last month, Trump and administration officials floated the idea of sending out a $2,000 payment to low- and middle-income workers that would be taken from tariff income. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs are currently being challenged in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The biggest threat in history to United States National Security would be a negative decision on Tariffs by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Trump said in a post on social media. “We would be financially defenseless.”