Trump Dangles $5,000 Dividend for GOP Victory

“Checkbook politics” has been an election-year staple for years, with politicians putting government money directly into voters’ pockets through highly visible checks and rebates. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul sent out inflation-refund checks of up to $400 last year and followed up this year with a $1 billion utility-relief program offering rebates of up to $200 to millions of residents.

But President Donald Trump dramatically upped the ante Wednesday night, tying an extraordinary $5,000 payout to Republican control of Congress.

“If the Republicans win the Senate and House, because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump told the Republican midterm convention in Dallas.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said, dubbing the proposed payments “Trump Dividends.”

Trump compared the proposal to a corporation sharing its success with investors, saying it would be like what “a successful company will do — a cash distribution to its shareholders.”

Trump attached one condition: “The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we’re making must be spent in the United States of America.”

Trump previously floated smaller tariff-funded dividends, including $2,000 payments, but those checks never went out. He suggested during his convention speech that tariff revenue and the nation’s economic performance could support the larger payment.

The pledge came as Trump explicitly put himself at the center of the midterm campaign.

“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump told supporters. “Just one more time.”

He also acknowledged the traditional midterm difficulty facing a president’s party.

“The midterms are not supposed to be won by the sitting president,” Trump said, before predicting: “We’re going to change that.”