Trump's $5,000 Payment Pitch Draws Pushback From Congress and Economists

Donald Trump's proposal to send $5,000 payments to American adults if Republicans hold Congress after November's midterm elections is meeting resistance from lawmakers and economists, who question both its cost and its timing.

The idea, unveiled during a nearly two-hour speech in Dallas on Wednesday night, would carry a price tag exceeding $1.3 trillion if Congress authorized payments to the nation's 270 million adults. The Treasury is already running an annual deficit approaching $1.8 trillion, and the national debt topped $40 trillion this year. Interest expense for fiscal year 2026 is projected at about $1.27 trillion — roughly the same as the projected cost of the payment plan.

Trump has previously pledged to fund payments of $2,000 or more using savings from the Department of Government Efficiency and revenue from tariffs on foreign imports, but none of those payments materialized.

Some of Trump's allies have embraced the latest idea. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno said he would prepare legislation for the payments. But critics accused the president of trying to buy votes as Republicans work to defend slim majorities in Congress.

"I don't know about you all, but frankly I'm insulted by the notion that my vote this November could be bought for 5k," Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a frequent Trump critic, wrote on social media. "Not to mention the inflation this would cause."

Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, was blunt while in Dallas on Thursday as part of his party's effort to counter the Republican midterm convention. "The dividend is not happening," he said.

Representative Ted Lieu, vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus, mocked the proposal, posting that if Democrats flipped both chambers, everyone would receive a $10,000 dividend along with a pony and free ice cream for life.

Economists warned that injecting such a large sum into the economy could worsen inflation. Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said Trump would be repeating what he called the policy mistake of predecessor Joe Biden, whose 2021 pandemic relief package included $1,400 payments to most Americans. Strain had warned at the time that those payments would spark inflation.

"Mr. Trump's proposal would be worse than the Biden stimulus in the sense that in 2026 the economy already has an inflation problem," Strain said, adding that Trump would be "pouring gasoline on lit inflationary embers."

Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, also drew a comparison to Biden's policy and stressed the deficit impact. "The idea that we've had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable," he said. "We don't have surpluses to give away."

Financial markets appeared unimpressed. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed above 4.9% in Thursday afternoon trading, a move that would likely raise the cost of mortgages and auto loans.

The proposal has also put some Republicans in an awkward position after years of criticizing Democratic spending. Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have recently blamed the Biden administration for current price levels. Bessent told CNBC that Biden and his allies "torched the American people" with out-of-control spending.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former Trump press secretary, struck a different note on Thursday. "You do not build a strong economy by giving things away," she said. "At the end of the day, though, somebody has to pick up the check, and it's the taxpayers that will ultimately pay the price."

Goldwein noted that political and constitutional realities could block the plan. "You never want to say it's impossible," he said. "But within the confines of the law, at least the law as everybody understands it, the president does not have legal authority to send people $5,000 per adult, and he needs Congress to pass a law."