A Republican senator said he is drafting a bill that would send out $5,000 checks in response to a proposal made by President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening in a Dallas speech.
“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!”
While speaking to the Dallas crowd, Trump said that if Republicans win the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, there would be enough economic success to provide a “dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”
Trump likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically.”
A $5,000 check would give Americans more money than they received in stimulus payments stemming from COVID-19 relief measures during the Trump and Biden administrations.
Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday evening provided more details about Trump’s promise and suggested the payment won’t be given to wealthier Americans.
During an interview with Fox News, Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, as the administration has imposed sweeping duties on most countries in the world since taking office last year.
“Well, I say first of all, what the president’s talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue because the president of the United States is actually standing up to both foreign companies, but also foreign countries who’ve been taking advantage of America’s workers for pretty much my entire life,” the vice president said.
Explaining further, Vance added: “What the president’s just saying is, ‘If you keep it going to the American people, if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you’re going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that, that we’re, we’re creating in the United States of America.’ I don’t think it’s a controversial idea.”
Trump has discussed the possibility before but has never tied it to his party’s electoral results. Earlier this year, he proposed a $2,000 dividend and said he didn’t think he needed approval from Congress.
Last year, Trump gave members of the military a $1,776 check that he called a “warrior dividend.”
Republicans are looking to defend their narrow House majority against strong headwinds and as the Trump administration has been grappling with high energy prices amid the war in Iran.
Also Thursday, Trump announced on social media that he would be sending out a rebate check worth $500 to nearly 1 million Americans who he said were wrongfully overcharged by insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
A White House fact sheet said that those refunds will be sent out to Americans in 30 states, saying that it was in response to the prior presidential administration’s “gross mismanagement of Obamacare.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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