When Andrew Yang ran for president, he wanted to initiate a national discussion about giving Americans direct cash payments. Now, to a degree, that discussion is happening. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration is looking to send one-off payments of as much as $1,200 to taxpayers, as part of a $1tn economic stabilization proposal.

Yang doesn’t think it’s enough.

“I think we should be looking at trillions of dollars of stimulus and the lion’s share of that should go to people,” said the tech entrepreneur who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, in an interview with the Guardian.

“That would be the most effective thing. A thousand dollars per person should be the baseline.

“If you’re looking at larger amounts than that, I’m thrilled. Whatever we do it should be regular and predictable so that after someone gets it in March or April, they also know they’re going to get it in May. And that they can look forward to it and not be stressed out.”

Yang said he would like to see a regular direct payment of something like double the $1,000 one-off payment being proposed by the Trump administration.

“So I think you should be looking at somewhere in the order of magnitude of several thousand dollars per household,” he said, “which would depend upon the size of the household, the composition of adults and children.

“So the bare minimum I suggested before is $1,000 per adult and $500 per child, which depending on the way your household is set up, it’s probably $2,000 to $3,000 a month. As a baseline I think amounts that are higher than that would be excellent. I would be all for it. But that to me would be the absolute minimum.”

The national discussion around direct payments is not exactly what Yang has been pushing. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who in 2008 was director for domestic and economic policy for John McCain’s presidential campaign, said that even with the direct payment proposal from the Trump administration, the country would not be close to implementing a universal basic income.

“I don’t see that as likely in the future,” Holtz-Eakin said when asked if direct payments would become a regular occurrence. “Americans have a deep reverence for work, we work more than other countries for a reason, and we’re not just going to mail checks to people regardless. I do not see that happening.”

Nonetheless, the spotlight has swung back to Yang. On Friday morning, his Humanity Forward not-for-profit group announced that it would distribute $1m in direct payments to low-income workers in New York and around the country.

Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic senators ranging from Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton to Sherrod Brown and Michael Bennet have rolled out direct payment proposals to help workers losing their jobs because of the pandemic.

“Obviously there have been cash rebates as part of a stimulus in the past but I think everyone agrees that this time the direct cash payments to people are a significant proportion of the measures that are being discussed,” Yang said.

“And I feel like the public discussion is very different this time, where this is the key component whereas at other times if you look at it both as a dollar amount and also as a level of discussion, the direct rebates were relatively minimal. This time it’s the direct topic of conversation.”

Asked if he thought the enthusiasm for direct payments among congressional leaders and the White House would lead to regular direct payments, Yang said he hoped direct payments would at least recur while the pandemic lasts.

“I don’t want to distract from a crisis, and we just need to get money into people’s hands, but by arguing for permanence … I mean, everyone knows I think it should be permanent,” he said. “But in the absence of it being permanent, that we should say it lasts the duration of the crisis. I think that would be immensely helpful.”

Recently, Yang said, the White House reached out to him and his team, asking for “information and studies” related to direct payments.

“We tried to send them information that would be helpful,” he said.

The White House did not respond to inquiries from the Guardian.

Yang argued that the Trump administration has not been fast enough in addressing the pandemic or its economic ramifications.

“I think the Trump administration missed the ball at the most crucial time where this crisis is concerned,” he said.

“Because early on you might’ve been able to trace individual people and the people they had contact with and because we missed that window we’re not in mediation mode [and we have] social distancing and closing down schools and all of that stuff.

“If we could’ve avoided this, think of that potential preservation of value. We’re teetering towards a depression. A recession’s already here. Imagine if you could’ve prevented that. It’s conceivable you could’ve prevented that if we’d been incredibly on the ball from day one.”

There have been rumors that Yang might run for mayor of New York, which he hasn’t shot down completely. His group’s move to make direct payments is likely to add fuel to such speculation.

Asked if he will run for office again, Yang said: “Well, we’re looking at it. We’re looking at several things. I want to try and do the most good I can. New York’s a great city. I love New York. But I love the United States too.”