Trump promises Americans $5,000 if Republicans win

US President Donald Trump promised to pay $5,000 to every adult American citizen if the Republican Party retains control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate following the November 3 midterm elections.

Trump said this during the first day of the Republican Party convention in Dallas.

The president called the future payment a "Trump dividend" and compared it to the distribution of profits by a successful company among shareholders. According to him, the payments would be possible thanks to the US economic results and the revenues the federal budget receives from tariffs.

Trump also set a condition for the use of the money: Americans will have to spend the received "dividend" within US territory. He separately emphasized that these funds should not be spent in Canada, China, Germany, or other countries.

At the same time, the president did not present a specific payment mechanism. It is not specified when exactly citizens could receive the money, by what criteria the recipients would be determined, and from which budget program the initiative would be funded.

The Associated Press estimates the potential cost of such a program at over $1 trillion. According to CBS News, there are about 245 million adult citizens in the US, so a payment of $5,000 to each would require over $1.2 trillion.

That substantially exceeds current US tariff revenues. According to data cited by CBS News, since the beginning of 2025 the US budget has received slightly less than $500 billion in tariff and excise revenue, including more than $100 billion that later had to be returned following a Supreme Court ruling regarding part of the tariffs introduced by the administration.

In addition, implementing the large-scale payment program would require congressional approval. Shortly after Trump's speech, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio announced that he would prepare a bill on the "Trump dividend" that could be considered after the elections.

Vice President JD Vance after the speech suggested that the payments might not go to all adult citizens: according to him, wealthy Americans could be excluded from the program. He also named tariff revenues as one of the possible sources of funding for it.

Trump has previously proposed directing part of tariff revenues toward direct payments to the population, but at that time it was about a "dividend" of $2,000. The new proposal of $5,000 is the most large-scale version of that initiative.

Sources: Donald Trump's speech at the Republican Party convention, Associated Press, CBS News.