$5,000 for every US adult? Trump makes bold GOP midterm pledge

President Donald Trump has pledged a “Trump dividend” plan aimed at paying every US adult citizen $5,000 if the Republicans win the midterm elections.

Speaking to a marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump made an announcement, “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000 and It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

Moreover, the president also enthusiastically urged the voters to vote for the Republicans as if he were on the ballot. He also compared the payments to corporate dividend distributions to shareholders, attributing them to the company's exceptional economic strength and success.

During the speech, the president also slammed Democrats as “radical” and defended his approach which he is pursuing in the unpopular war with Iran.

“There is a crazy little sick cloud over our country,” Trump added, “We will defeat communism in America.”

“If we lose, you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts, you’re going to lose your safety and security, you’re going to lose your wealth. Our country is going through hell – we will be going through hell, just like we did, just two years ago,” he said.

The proposal of cashing out $5000 would cost not only the administration more than $1 trillion as there are 270 million American adults but also raised ethical concerns among the experts and Democrats.

Within an hour of the speech, Vice President JD Vance seemingly sought to soften Trump’s proposal by suggesting that dividend payments exclude wealthy households. Vance also pointed to US tariff revenues as a funding source. But as per the economists’ analysis, the projected payouts vastly exceed current tariff collections.

Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, accused Republicans of holding a “bizarre dog-and-pony show” to placate the president’s “fragile ego”.

“Tonight only confirmed that the president is a lame duck failure who is dragging his party toward defeat,” Martin said.

According to experts, the cashout would require approval from Congress. Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, questioned Trump’s authority to send money to Americans without approval from Congress.

As per Goldwein, the dividends are being paid when there is a surplus but in reality the US is running $2 trillion annual deficits and has $40 trillion in debt.

“The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable. We don’t have surpluses to give away,” he added.