President Donald Trump made a major midterm election promise Wednesday night, pledging to send $5,000 to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans maintain control of both the House and Senate in November.
Trump unveiled what he called the “Trump dividend” during his speech at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas, tying the proposed payments directly to the outcome of this fall’s congressional elections.
“Here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them … because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said.
The proposal would carry an enormous price tag. With roughly 270 million adults in the United States, sending $5,000 to each would cost approximately $1.35 trillion. Trump did not explain Wednesday night where the money would come from or provide details about how the payments would be distributed.
It also remains unclear what authority the president would have to issue the payments without congressional approval. Broad federal payments to Americans have generally involved legislation passed by Congress, including the stimulus checks distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump said his administration would be able to make the payments because of the country's economic performance.
He also placed one restriction on the proposal: The money would have to be spent in the United States.
“We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money,” Trump said. “We don’t want you going to China, to Germany.”
Trump had teased the announcement earlier during his lengthy speech at the Dallas convention, telling the crowd that he believed it would be the “best part of the speech.”
The $5,000 proposal is not the first time Trump has floated the idea of sending direct payments to Americans.
Last year, Trump proposed $2,000 tariff-funded dividend checks. At the time, questions also emerged over whether the president could authorize the payments himself or would need Congress to approve them. Trump suggested he did not believe congressional authorization was necessary, while National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett later indicated lawmakers would likely need to be involved.
Wednesday’s proposal goes considerably further, both in the size of the payment and in explicitly making it contingent on Republican victories in November.
Trump offered few other specifics about how the plan would work, including when Americans could receive the money, how the domestic-spending requirement would be enforced or precisely how the government would fund a program potentially costing more than $1 trillion.
