President Donald Trump doubled down on his pledge to send $5,000 to every U.S. adult if Republicans retain control of Congress in November, a promise that would cost the federal government more than $1 trillion and has drawn accusations of bribery from critics on both sides of the political divide.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Dallas on Wednesday, Trump set the stakes plainly. “If the Republicans win, you win with us,” he told the audience. He offered few details about how he could make good on the promise, saying only that the money must be spent in the U.S. On the second and final night of the convention, Trump defended the plan again, telling the crowd, “We can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars.”
The pledge has left many Republican lawmakers and officials scrambling. On the convention’s final night, Trump was one of the few people to actually mention the so-called dividend, as many lawmakers and officials, including Vice President JD Vance, avoided the topic altogether. Vance, meanwhile, cast the pledge as “a dividend for American workers” buoyed by Trump’s tariff policy, telling Fox News, “I don’t think it’s a controversial idea.”
Trump, however, went further. He told CBS News that he does not think Congress would need to approve the $5,000 checks, claiming the country has taken in “trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things,” inflating the revenue generated from the duties he has implemented. That assertion runs into a structural problem: any money generated from tariffs is deposited into the U.S. Treasury and then allocated by Congress through legislation. Senator Bernie Moreno, a staunch Trump ally, pledged to introduce longshot legislation to codify the promise.
Accusations of bribery and legal concerns
The legality of the pledge remained unclear. Critics have argued it could constitute an illegal effort to sway the vote, while some supporters characterized it as a simple campaign promise. Gabi Michaelis, a 25-year-old receptionist from Dallas who protested outside the convention, said her first thought was that “it’s illegal to bribe.” She pointed to an earlier pledge in Trump’s second term to transform cuts to the federal government into cash payments for citizens. “It hasn’t happened, ever,” she said.
Trump supporter Steven Roberts, a retired telecommunications engineer from Rice City, Texas, offered a similar assessment, if more amenable. “It’s kind of like a bribe,” he said with a chortle. “I mean, if he can pull it off, I think it’s great.” California Governor Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, condemned the scheme as an attempt to “buy your vote with $5,000 in taxpayer-funded blood money.”
Peter Bowen, a 77-year-old Trump supporter, said the pledge was out of step with a Republican ethos that eschews government handouts, but he saw it as a wily attempt to use a “Democratic Party trick.” “Because that’s what they do,” Bowen said. “The Democratic Party gives stuff away.” He expressed openness to receiving the payout. “I laughed when I heard it,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind it.”
Other Trump voters were skeptical. Ronnda Law, a 55-year-old resident of Lubbock, Texas, who attended the convention, said she was considering voting Democrat in November. “We were supposed to get a stipend from all the trade wars we’re in,” she said. “Where are those at?” Becky Rensing, a 49-year-old real estate broker, gave Trump high marks on his convention messaging but drew the line at the dividend. “I wouldn’t be for it,” she said. “I don’t think we need $5,000. We need the basics of life, for the costs to go down.”
Convention theatrics and economic backdrop
Trump used his convention speeches to urge supporters to turn out in November, asking Republicans in the arena to “pretend I’m on the ticket.” In an improvised pledge, he directed the audience to repeat: “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try. And cheat like hell like they do.” He also told those gathered that they would “go to hell” if they didn’t vote. Before flying back to Washington, Trump told reporters on the tarmac that he was not pledging the checks to turn out the vote. “I did it as a reward,” he said, for “four years of horrible, a horrible situation caused by Biden.”
The convention unfolded against a turbulent economic backdrop. Oil prices have surged past $100 a barrel amid renewed hostilities with Iran, and the average price for a gallon of gas is more than a dollar higher than before the war with Iran started in February. Trump insisted prices would return to less than $2 a gallon. “I’m pretty sure,” he said. “I’m pretty good at it.” Protester Andy McWilliams, 64, from Kansas City, Missouri, believed the dividend promise would prove empty but called the price tag outrageous. “That would cost over one trillion dollars,” he said. “That would add to the deficit; it’s already $40 trillion.”
Vance’s speech, in many ways an audition for a possible 2028 presidential run, urged Republicans not to abandon the party over isolated policy disagreements, an apparent nod to dissent over the Iran war. He pointed to Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist killed a year ago, to argue voters shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Other speakers at the hastily organized convention included Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said the “irony” of his “presence here is inescapable,” and former White House secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said it felt “much better speaking to a stadium full of patriots than a briefing room full of journalists.” Outside the arena, dozens of demonstrators gathered, and Dallas police said two people were taken into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway.