Cost could top $1 trillion without income limits

President Trump promised Wednesday night to issue a $5,000 “dividend” to every American adult citizen if Republicans retain control of both the House and Senate in the November midterm elections, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The proposal could cover more than 200 million payments and cost more than $1 trillion unless income-limit restrictions are imposed, Damian Paletta, the Journal’s Washington coverage chief, reported from Dallas. Trump hinted that tariff revenue could supply the money, but Paletta said that was not completely clear.

The proposal also leaves unresolved whether Republicans in Congress would support the payments and whether they could be carried out without causing a spike in inflation. Paletta wrote that the inflation question would fuel a major debate. Trump did not say whether congressional Republicans would go along with the proposal, though Paletta wrote that lawmakers might find it difficult to reject if Trump helped them retain their majorities.

“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic—tremendous economic success—like in history we’ve never had anything like what’s happening, but because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said, according to the Journal account.

Paletta described the pledge as perhaps Trump’s biggest election-year promise to date. The amount would exceed the direct payments Trump previously supported or promised.

During the Covid outbreak in 2020, $1,200 stimulus checks went to Americans. The Trump administration put the president’s name on checks sent to many recipients, a move President Joe Biden later described as a smart tactic. Income limits excluded wealthier Americans from those payments.

Congress approved an additional $600 stimulus payment later in 2020, after Trump lost re-election. Trump said at the time that the stimulus payments should have been $2,000.

Trump promised Americans a $2,000 tariff “dividend” last year, but that payment was not delivered.