Trump's vow to give Americans $5,000 'dividend' falls flat

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Sep 10, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans win the midterms fell flat as critics and even some allies trashed the plan as unworkable, irresponsible and potentially illegal.

Trump made the $1.2 trillion gambit at his midterm Republican convention as he seeks to do anything he can to rescue Republicans’ sagging prospects in the fall congressional elections.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump declared in his speech to the GOP confab in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

The president, who is burdened by historically low approval ratings, likened the payments to corporate payouts to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically.”

Not surprisingly, Democrats trashed the plan as a desperate ploy that reflects Republicans’ poor polling.

“If you really believe that you’re going to get a $5000 check from @POTUS for voting Republican this fall, he probably has an arch in Washington he wants to sell you,” tweeted Democratic strategist David Axelrod.

In his second term alone, Trump has vowed to send out $5,000 checks from phantom savings created by Elon Musk’s short-lived Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and $2,000 “rebates” from his troubled trade-war tariffs.

Neither proposal went anywhere.

Some Trump loyalists predictably cheered the proposal, with Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, vowing to draw up legislation to authorize the planned payments.

But even some Republicans questioned the proposal, which could balloon the deficit and spark higher inflation.

“It’s nothing but a crass vote-buying operation,” ex-Rep. Patrick Rooney, R-Florida, said on CNN. “That’s one more trillion dollars we don’t need to spend.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a fiscal hawk who is not running for reelection, questioned the plan: “I would like to know how they would plan to pay for (it).”

Vice President JD Vance also seemed to walk back his boss’s proposal by suggesting there would be income caps on who would receive the $5,000 payments, although Trump mentioned no such restrictions.

The veep, who was scheduled to address the GOP convention Thursday night, also suggested the dividend could be bankrolled by U.S. tariff revenues, though the $1 trillion-plus cost dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures and courts have struck down many of the import taxes.

Legal experts say the president cannot unilaterally decide to make any payments and Congress would need to approve the $5,000 payout.

Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress since his reelection in 2024 and could have sought to push through such a plan anytime.

The GOP is facing grim polls that show their candidates trailing far behind Democrats in the so-called “generic ballot” of party preference. Those numbers point to Democrats retaking control of the House of Representatives and maybe even flipping the Senate too, non-partisan pundits say.

Trump himself is deeply unpopular, with only about 38% of voters approving of his second-term performance.

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