“If the Republicans win, you get $5,000.”
That’s Donald Trump at the RNC’s midterm convention in Dallas, in September 2026. He called them “Trump Dividends”: a $5,000 check for every adult American citizen, but only if the Republicans keep the House and the Senate in November.
The small print is that there isn’t any. No details on how it would be paid, or whether Congress would have to approve it. There are about 245 million adult citizens, so the bill comes to roughly $1.2 trillion. The funding hinted at is tariff revenue.
It’s not the first time. Last year it was a 5,000 “DOGE dividend”. Neither turned into an actual check.
And the part economists keep repeating: Federal Reserve research found the pandemic stimulus checks were at least partly responsible for the inflation that came after. Hand everyone money without producing anything more and prices go up. Four centuries ago a Jesuit got locked up for explaining that one: Inflation is a tax on the poor.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-dividends-5000-checks-rnc-midterm-convention/