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Trump pledges $5,000 payments to American adults
September 13, 2026
Trump told a Republican midterm rally in Dallas that every American adult would get $5,000 if Republicans keep Congress, and the commerce secretary says taxes would not fund it.
Trump is serving a second term as president and has repeatedly floated direct payments to Americans funded by tariff revenue, including a $2,000 check, ahead of midterm elections that decide control of the House and Senate.
Key facts
- The $5,000 dividend was floated at a moment when a recent Associated Press poll put approval of the president’s economic stewardship at 32%, roughly three in 10 adults in the country, against 40% when his second term began.
- “We have a waitlist of more than 100,000 people who want to come,” said Lutnick.
- Speaking to NBC News, Lutnick said, “It’s not tax money,” and said the administration was in a position to “earn the money that Donald Trump wants to pay out, not from the deficit and not from taxpayers”.
- Kevin Hassett, who directs the National Economic Council, said on Bloomberg Television on Friday that a congressional “reconciliation process” was under consideration as the funding route for the pledged checks.
Trump promised every American adult $5,000 if his party holds both chambers in the midterms, speaking Wednesday at a Republican convention rally in Dallas, Texas. CNN, NBC News, The Guardian and USA Today all carry the pledge and the condition Trump put on it. The Guardian reports that he named the payment the Trump dividend and set it beside a one-time, tax-free $1,776 payment approved last year for about 1.45 million US military service members. CNN reports an earlier Trump vow to send out $2,000 checks paid for out of tariff revenue. USA Today reports that Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said on X he would write legislation for the dividend.
On where the money would come from, the outlets line up. NBC News reports Commerce Secretary Lutnick saying in an interview that taxes are not the source, and that the administration could earn the sum Trump wants to hand out without drawing on the deficit or on taxpayers; The Guardian carries the same interview. NBC News also reports Kevin Hassett, who directs the National Economic Council, telling Bloomberg Television on Friday that the White House was weighing a reconciliation process in Congress to pay for the checks, an account The Guardian carries as well. The Guardian reports that the plan lands while a recent Associated Press poll puts approval of the president's handling of the economy at about three in 10 US adults, or 32%, down from 40% at the start of his second term.
The split is over how the idea reached the rest of the administration. One account describes officials and allies caught unprepared by the vow, with an internal scramble on Thursday to fill in what the proposal would actually involve, resting on two people familiar with the matter; a competing account carries a White House official rejecting the idea that aides were surprised and placing the plan in conversations with senior staff before the speech. The accounts also part on how the White House answered questions about paying every American adult $5,000. Settled is the pledge, its size, the condition Trump attached to it and the administration's line that taxes are not the source. Unsettled is the internal history behind the announcement and the mechanism that would move the money. CNN reports former House GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich warning that the rollout risks sounding like a gimmick, and saying he had raised the idea of handing out tariff money with Trump before; USA Today carries the same remarks.
He put the offer in electoral terms, saying, “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” and he said the payment would carry the name “the Trump dividend”.
Still developing
The figures about the internal scramble move between the accounts. Parts of the account had not been carried across the coverage as of the draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNN — Trump officials scramble to manage fallout after his $5K check pledge to all Americans
- NBC News — Lutnick says Trump’s $5,000 checks for Americans wouldn’t rely on taxpayer funds
- The Atlantic — Trump Will Never Mail the $5,000 Checks
- The Guardian — Taxes wouldn’t fund $5,000 Trump ‘dividend’ if Republicans win midterms, says commerce secretary
- USA Today — Will you get Trump's $5,000 dividend check? Here's what we know.