Donald Trump says Americans will receive proposed $5,000 dividend checks if Republicans retain control of Congress after the 2026 midterm elections.
The plan faces questions over funding, congressional approval and whether tariff revenue would be sufficient.
Republicans including Ron DeSantis and Susan Collins have raised concerns over inflation.
US President Donald Trump has said Americans will receive proposed $5,000 dividend checks “100 percent” if Republicans retain control of Congress after the 2026 midterm elections, tying the payments to a GOP victory.
Trump said on Sunday that the government would be able to fund the payments because the US is bringing in “trillions and trillions of dollars”. He also claimed the country was attracting more than $20 trillion in investments.
“The $5,000 is going to happen 100 percent,” Trump told reporters outside Air Force One.
Trump, however, said he does not want the payments distributed while Republicans’ control of Congress is at risk. He argued that a Democratic takeover would prevent the government from being able to make the payments.
Trump Says Payments Would Not Come From Taxpayers
Trump first announced the proposed dividends at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention last week, saying his administration could afford the payments because “we’ve done so well”. He said the checks would be restricted to people in the US.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the payments would not rely on taxpayer money. He said the administration could generate the funds Trump wants to distribute without increasing the deficit or directly drawing from taxpayers.
The proposal has also drawn comparisons with the $1,776 payments made to about 1.45 million US service members last year. Those payments were a one-time housing supplement included in Trump’s tax and spending law, the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Funding, Inflation Concerns Cloud $5,000 Plan
The proposal has faced questions over whether tariff revenue could cover the cost. Paul Berman, a professor at George Washington University Law School, previously estimated that distributing $5,000 checks would require about $1.3 trillion.
Trump’s tariffs have generated roughly $341 billion in net revenue since the beginning of 2025, according to Treasury data cited by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Supreme Court has also struck down the administration’s sweeping tariffs and ordered a refund of $166 billion in tariff revenue.
Berman has argued that even if sufficient tariff revenue were available, Congress would still control how such money could be spent.
Some Republicans have also raised concerns about the plan. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pointed to the national debt and warned that the payments could fuel inflation.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the limited details available suggest the proposed dividend could have no income cap and could be “extraordinarily costly”.
