President Donald Trump said he doesn’t believe he will need an act of Congress to send out the $5,000 dividend payments he said Americans would receive if the Republicans won the midterms. Trump made the statement during the Republican National Committee Midterm Convention in Dallas ahead of the midterm elections.
Speaking to CBS News on Thursday, the president was asked whether Congress would need to approve the plan.
“We think not. I think they will do it if we needed it. But we think not. The country is doing so well, we’ve taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things,” Trump said, adding that trillions of dollars have been invested in manufacturing plants and other industries in the United States.
Trump added that he wants people to “spend their money in the United States. We don’t want to have that money spent in other countries. We think it’s something that’s really good, popular, and it’s a great infusion.”
“If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” Trump said in his speech. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”
He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically.”
Trump has previously discussed the possibility of sending a tariff-related dividend payment to citizens. Earlier this year, he proposed a $2,000 dividend and also said he didn’t think he needed approval from Congress.
In January, Trump gave military members a $1,776 check that he called a “warrior dividend.”
One Republican in Congress indicated that he supports the idea.
“I will get a bill ready so that we can get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) wrote on X late Wednesday. “Because Republicans (and America) will win!”
But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who ran against Trump in the 2024 presidential primary, warned that sending out such a dividend payment would boost inflation.
“If you are getting surplus revenue, you should cut people’s tax and return it to the people,” DeSantis told reporters in Miami on Thursday.
“What I don’t think you want to do is borrow another $1.5 trillion, and then just try to flood that into the economy, because that will lead to more inflation. That will lead to more debt and more inflation.”
Also on Thursday, Trump announced in a video that he would send $500 rebate payments to people he said were overcharged through marketplaces operated under Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. The payments would make up for “user fees” incurred under Obamacare plan exchanges during the Biden presidential administration, according to a White House fact sheet.
The White House added in its fact sheet that the Trump administration will now send health insurance-related refunds of “these excess fees to Americans who do not receive premium assistance” in 30 states that use the federal exchange for their Obamacare health insurance markets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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