By Sarah Bahari
The Dallas Morning News
(TNS)
Sept. 11 — President Donald Trump pledged to send every American adult a $5,000 dividend check if Republicans maintain control of Congress in the midterm election.
“If the Republicans win, you win with us and get $5,000,” Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention this week in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”
The president compared the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders and cited the country’s “tremendous strength and success economically.”
How much would this cost? Is it even legal? Has Trump made similar promises in the past? Here’s what you should know.
How much would the $5,000 checks cost?
Giving every American adult a $5,000 dividend check would cost about $1.2 trillion. Trump offered few details on how the program would work or when checks would be distributed, although he did say the money must be spent in the U.S. It’s not clear how that would be tracked.
Trump did not say how they would be paid for, but Vice President JD Vance said they could be funded through tariff revenue. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimates tariffs will generate $109 billion in revenue in 2026, far short of the dividend price tag.
Can Trump really do this?
Sending checks would require congressional approval. U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, wrote on X that he would introduce a bill to “get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election.”
But some Republicans tried to downsize the program. Vance appeared to scale back Trump’s promise, saying wealthy Americans would not receive a check. In an interview with Fox News, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said he would support a dividend structured as a tax refund for only working Americans. And U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, another Texas Republican, appeared to dismiss the idea. “Some of us think dependency is evil & soul-sucking in all its forms,” he wrote on X.
Democrats largely panned the idea and said it would never happen.
But is it legal?
Federal law prohibits offering to pay someone to vote or to cast a particular vote, but Trump’s proposal could be considered a campaign promise, which is protected by the First Amendment. Some legal experts pointed out that Democrats in the past have promised to forgive student loans if elected.
“How is this different from a candidate pledging if elected to secure medicare for all or to cut everyone’s taxes?” Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA who studies election law, wrote in a blog post.
How would the checks affect the economy?
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the payments would worsen inflation and the national debt, which last month topped $40 trillion for the first time in history.
“This proposal is fiscally dangerous, economically backwards, and fundamentally unserious,” Maya MacGuineas, the nonprofit’s president, said in a statement.
Has Trump made similar promises?
Yes, Trump has pledged to send checks in the past that never materialized.
Last year, he promised to send Americans $2,000 rebate checks from tariff revenue. He also floated $5,000 stimulus checks funded by the savings from the Department of Government Efficiency, which slashed millions of dollars in federal spending in layoffs and buyouts. The program, initially run by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, ceased operations this year.
Neither of those checks ever happened.
Last year, Trump did give members of the military a $1,776 check he called a “warrior dividend.”
Photo caption: President Donald Trump gives the keynote address on night one of the 2026 Republican Midterm Convention on Sept. 9, 2026, at American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Abigail Dollins)
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© 2026 The Dallas Morning News. Visit www.dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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