President Donald Trump has pledged to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the midterm elections, in an extraordinary attempt to persuade voters to back his party.
The proposal would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval. It could also further widen the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and fuel concerns about inflation.
Trump made the controversial offer yesterday during a primetime address at the Republican Party’s first-ever convention in Dallas, held midway through a US presidential term.
“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump Dividend,” the Republican president said.
He likened the payments to a corporation’s distribution to shareholders, citing what he described as the country’s “tremendous strength and success economically.”
Trump gave no details on how the plan would work or where the money would come from, saying only that the money would have to be spent in the United States.
The president has frequently lamented that the president’s party almost always loses seats in Congress during the midterm elections and has sought unorthodox ways to defy the trend, including this week’s convention.
“We’re going to change that,” Trump said. “There’s no reason for it.”
Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to partially walk back Trump’s proposal, suggesting that the dividend payments would not go to wealthy Americans.
Vance suggested the payments could be funded through US tariff revenues, although the proposed $5,000 payment would far exceed the revenue generated by the tariffs.
Congress would need to approve the payments or otherwise acquiesce to the plan. The proposed sum would exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court struck down much of Trump’s tariff programme last year.
The national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time last month.
Questions have also emerged over the feasibility of the proposal, particularly as prices continue to rise in the US, partly due to the economic effects of the war between the US and Israel and Iran that began in February.
Iran’s retaliation has included attacks on US bases and allies in the Gulf, while the conflict has largely disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas previously transited.
The disruption has caused fluctuations in global oil prices, while Trump has faced pressure from members of his party to end the war.