Trump says his $5,000 dividend checks for every American adult are ‘100 percent’ happening
President Donald Trump claims his offer to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans keep control of Congress is "100 percent" on track — and that he knows “exactly how” to come up with the budget-busting amount of cash.
Trump was pressed by reporters about the proposal — which Democrats have called an attempt to bribe voters ahead of November's midterm elections — before leaving Ireland, where he attended a golf tournament at his Doonbeg resort.
“The $5,000 checks are going forward,” he said Sunday at Shannon Airport in County Clare.
When asked if he way to fund the plan, Trump insisted, “I know exactly how we’re going to pay it” before quickly changing the subject.
“You know, it’s interesting on that because everybody said that the great Big Beautiful Bill will never happen. It happened. They said that the 1776 for the military — $1,776 — would never happen. And it happened. They were paid,” the president said. “And now they say, ‘Oh, the $5,000.’ The $5,000 is going to happen, 100 percent.”
At one point, Trump boasted that the U.S. was “taking in so much money in so different ways, including the tariffs,” which experts say are fueling inflation, as is his war against Iran, now in its seventh month.
The president also said he didn't want to give Americans the money before the elections because if Democrats win, “our country will be in shambles and they won’t be able to do it.”
“If the Democrats get in, they won’t be able to pay it. With me — I’ve always made money. Now I make a lot of money for the country,” said Trump, who reported at least $2.2 billion in income while in office last year.
Experts have said Trump's proposed payments would total more than $1.2 trillion, on top of a fiscal 2026 budget deficit that the Treasury Department pegs at nearly $2 trillion.
The president has claimed he doesn't need congressional approval for the “Trump dividend” checks he announced during last week's Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, which took place as polls show Democrats with an average 6.6 percent lead in the so-called generic congressional ballot.
But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said Sunday that Trump would “need Congress to act.”
During an appearance on CNN's State of the Union that preceded Trump’s remarks, Johnson called the one-time payments “a creative idea” that “got a lot of people excited.”
“Of course, the devil's in the details. We have to figure all that out,” he said. “But I think what he was articulating there...is that he's saying that, if you want more money in your pocket, you have to keep Republicans in charge.”
Johnson declined, however, to commit to enacting Trump's pledge, telling NBC's Meet the Press: “I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that, like I have to do everything else.”
"I’ll work with the president hand in hand, as I do all the time, and we’ll deliver for the American people," he said. "That's the promise."
