Will Americans ever see the US$5,000 'dividend' Trump promised voters if Republicans keep control of Senate, House? - National Post

U.S. President Donald Trump takes the stage to speak on the second day of the 2026 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, on September 10, 2026 Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesArticle contentU.S. President Donald Trump has promised US$5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in November’s midterm elections.

The pledge has raised questions about its legality, its cost and where the money would come from.

Federal law prohibits offering payments in exchange for votes and separately restricts promises of federally funded benefits in return for political support.

Trump’s offer would appear to skirt these prohibitions because it is more in the nature of a campaign promise and would apply to all adult Americans regardless of how they voted.

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Any such payment would in any case require congressional authorization, as the U.S. Constitution bars the president from spending Treasury funds without an appropriation made by law.

But Trump told CBS News Texas he did not think Congress would need to approve the payments, without going into details.

Trump has made similar pledges in the past which never came about, including promising Americans US$2,000 checks from tariff revenues and US$5,000 checks from savings made from drastic federal job cuts.

There are about 276.8 million adults aged 18 and over in the United States, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and doling out US$5,000 to each would come to US$1.384 trillion.

Trump said he was targeting “every American.” Restricting the payments to U.S. citizens would reduce that figure to about US$1.27 trillion.

During the COVID pandemic, Congress approved payouts to income-eligible tax filers and their dependents only, a narrower approach that would lower the cost further.

The three rounds of pandemic stimulus checks approved in 2020 and 2021 came to about US$814 billion in total, according to federal oversight data.