Donald Trump has promised every adult American a $5,000 payout if Republicans win control of both chambers of Congress in November. The pledge that would cost more than $1 trillion.
Donald Trump has made a juicy pledge: if Republicans win control of both the House and Senate in November, every adult American would receive a $5,000 payment.
“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them,” Trump said at the party’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, Texas “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”
There was a catch though. Trump wants the money to go to American businesses.
“We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money. We don’t want you going to China, to Germany. You got to spend the money in the United States of America.”
It’s unclear how, or whether, that kind of spending could actually be tracked or enforced.
With nearly 270 million adults in the US, a $5,000 payout to each person would cost the government roughly $1.3 trillion. Trump didn’t offer details on how the plan would be funded, or whether he intends to seek congressional approval, which would typically be required for spending at this scale.
Not the first significant payout Trump has talked about
This isn’t the first big payout Trump has floated.
He proposed $2,000 checks funded by tariff revenue to most US citizens already last year. Not a single one of these checks has been mailed as of today.
Prices continue rising in the US, partly because of the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran that began in February.
Iran’s retaliation has included strikes on US bases and allies in the Gulf, and has largely shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.
The blockage has caused oil prices to swing sharply worldwide, adding pressure on Trump from within his own party to bring the conflict to an end.
Just ahead of his convention speech, Trump told his supporters the war wouldn’t end until after the midterms, and that oil prices wouldn’t come down until then. He argued that short-term economic pain was a worthwhile trade-off to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
A promise with legal and political questions attached
Democrats were quick to dismiss the pledge as an empty promise. Federal law also prohibits payments intended to influence voting.
Some experts, however, say the promise could be interpreted as a pledge to cut taxes, which would be legal.
It isn’t unprecedented for politicians to tie economic promises to election outcomes, on either side of the political spectrum. During the 2020 Georgia Senate runoffs, Democrats similarly promised $2,000 relief payments if their party won control of the chamber.
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