President Donald Trump promised every American adult a $5,000 dividend if Republicans win November’s midterms. The pledge, delivered Wednesday night at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, drew immediate criticism from both parties. Legal experts questioned whether the offer violates federal law. Republicans in tough races scrambled to respond.
The proposal would cost more than $1.2 trillion, according to 2024 Census data showing roughly 245.3 million adult citizens, a figure that exceeds what the government distributed in Covid-era stimulus checks blamed for worsening inflation. Less than a month ago, U.S. debt passed $40 trillion for the first time. The government has spent more than $6 trillion between October and July, CNBC reported, and borrowing costs have risen sharply in recent weeks amid concerns about sticky inflation and elevated national debt, which stood at 122.6% of GDP in the first quarter of the year.
Trump offered no details on funding. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that tariff revenue could cover the payments and that the checks would go to the American middle class, not wealthy Americans. But tariff revenue falls far short. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates Trump’s import duties have brought in around $300 billion between January 2025 and July 2026, CNBC reported. More than $100 billion has been refunded since the Supreme Court struck down a swath of tariffs as illegal in February.
Republicans break ranks
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a five-term Republican facing a tough re-election race, said in a statement that “from the few details we have” the pledge “would not have an income cap and would be extraordinarily costly.” She added that tax and spending decisions should be based on the needs of the American people and the state of the economy, not tied to election results.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a leader of the Freedom Caucus, told Politico he wanted to know how the plan would be paid for. Former Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good called it a “socialist vote-buying scheme” on X. Palantir co-founder and Republican donor Joe Lonsdale wrote on the platform that he was “strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
Democrats labeled the promise an “empty promise,” the BBC reported. The White House defended the plan. Spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement that “the doomers and naysayers have consistently doubted President Trump,” adding that “with the continued support of the American people, President Trump will keep delivering real results.”
Legal questions mount
Under U.S. federal law, it is illegal to give payments that are intended to influence the way a person is voting, the BBC reported. CNBC reported that under federal law, offering or making a payment to induce someone to vote for or against a candidate is a criminal offense, punishable by a fine, up to one year in prison, or both, with a willful violation carrying up to two years’ imprisonment.
Dr. Joan Mahoney, a law lecturer at the University of Southampton, told the BBC she believed the offer would be legal, comparing it to a campaign pledge to reduce taxes. “On the one hand it sounds a bit like a bribe, vote for the Republicans and you’ll get money, which would be decidedly illegal,” she said. “But on the other hand it would go to everyone, regardless of how they voted so it isn’t in that sense a bribe.”
Laurel Rapp, director of the U.S. and North America programme at Chatham House, told the BBC the offer seemed to be “a very different, very transactional agreement” from the kind of promise candidates usually make. Legal experts told the BBC it was unlikely Trump could approve such a vast sum through a presidential executive order, since Congress authorizes spending. Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told the BBC she would be “extremely surprised” if Congress approved any proposal, calling it “one of the worst ways to use $1.3 trillion.”
Trump has previously proposed payments to Americans that never materialized, the BBC reported, including $2,000 cheques to be funded by tariff revenues. CNBC separately reported that Trump early in his second term backed a $5,000 “DOGE dividend” tied to savings from the Department of Government Efficiency, which also never came to fruition.
Asked on Fox News why the payments would wait until after the midterms, Trump said, “Because the Democrats can’t do it,” adding “with them, it’s negative growth” and “with us, it’s so positive,” CNBC reported. Trump claimed his tariff policies have brought $21 trillion in U.S. investment, a figure that has been repeatedly fact-checked as false, with the White House’s own website listing a tally nearly $10 trillion below that claim.
The convention continued Thursday with Vance set to deliver a keynote address. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, addressed the crowd, noting “the irony of my presence here is inescapable” given his Democratic family lineage. Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder pardoned by Trump, also spoke. Outside the arena, Dallas police took two people into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway, The Guardian reported.