PHOENIX — The $5,000 checks President Donald Trump is promising if his party retains control of Congress in the midterm elections would carry a price tag of more than a trillion dollars.
The White House has not said exactly how the president would pay for his “Trump Dividends,” which he announced in a speech Wednesday on the first night of the Republican midterm convention.
“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic, tremendous economic success – like, in history, we’ve never had anything like what's happening,” Trump said. “But 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.”
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A $5,000 payment to every adult would cost about $1.2 trillion – a sum that would nearly double the annual budget deficit.
Only Social Security would cost taxpayers more, based on federal spending in fiscal year 2025. Trump Dividends would cost more than Medicare, interest on the national debt and national defense.
The government ran a deficit of nearly $1.8 trillion in that budget year.
In a news release, the White House referenced success from "trillions in new private investment," a crackdown on government waste and "rebuilt American strength at home" but offered no specifics on where the funding for the $5,000 checks could come from.
Unlikely to pass Congress
Republican budget hawks were cool to the idea.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said on social media that $1.2 trillion could cover that tax bill for a decade of married parents with dependents who make up to $200,000.
And U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the dividends “enormously costly” and said such decisions “should not appear to be tied to election results,” ABC News reported.
Trump compared the payments to corporate dividends, saying “very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders.”
But the U.S. government doesn’t have a surplus of money. In fact, the national debt hit a record $40 trillion last month.
Not Trump's first dividend promise
Trump has pledged other checks since taking office for the second time.
Last year, he proposed $5,000 “DOGE Dividends” from savings the federal government would see from Elon Musk’s Department of Government of Efficiency. Trump also said social media last year that everyone would get a dividend of at least $2,000 from tariff revenue.
Neither payment was ever made.
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