Trump's $5,000 dividend: a midterm pledge costed at about $1.2 trillion
Trump promised every adult citizen $5,000 if Republicans keep the House and Senate. The bill would run about $1.2 trillion and no funding plan has been set out.
- What was promised: At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on September 9, Trump said a Trump dividend of $5,000 would go to every adult citizen if Republicans win both chambers, to be spent in the US.
- What it would cost: About $1.2 trillion on 240 to 245 million adult citizens. JD Vance pointed to tariff revenue; the Tax Foundation says the payout would absorb nearly all projected tariff income over a decade.
- The pushback: Republicans Chip Roy and David Schweikert asked how it would be paid for. Federal law bars paying people to vote; election law scholars say a promise to all adults falls outside it.