Trump promises $5,000 per adult if GOP retains Congress; cites tariff revenue when pressed on funding

US President Donald Trump [Getty Images]
US President Donald Trump [Getty Images]

US President Donald Trump has pointed to tariff revenue as the funding source for his pledge to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win November's midterm elections.

Asked in a Fox News interview Thursday (local time) how he would finance the $5,000 dividend, Trump said, "We're making $21 trillion. No country has ever made anything close to that," adding it was all thanks to "that beautiful word — tariffs," Yonhap reported.

The $21 trillion figure Trump cited appears to refer not to actual US tariff receipts but to the total foreign investment expected to flow into the United States as a result of his tariff policies.

Fox News said the remarks implied that tariff revenue could cover at least part of the cost of the pledge, provided Republicans hold their congressional majority after the midterms.

That interpretation was reinforced by Vice President JD Vance, who also appeared on Fox News that day and said the so-called "Trump dividend" would be funded through tariff revenue.

Even Fox News, which leans toward Trump, expressed skepticism, noting that US tariff revenue of around $200 billion a year "falls far short of the estimated cost" of the pledge.

US media have estimated that fulfilling the $5,000-per-person promise Trump announced at the Republican convention would require at least $1 trillion.

Trump also pointed to other potential revenue sources. "We're making money — TikTok, for example," he said. "We received fees. I received fees for our country. From Intel, $10 billion."

Trump's money promises

Trump made the $5,000-per-adult dividend pledge at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, promising to distribute the payments if the party retains its majority in both chambers of Congress.

He also pledged to refund $500 to about 1 million people across 30 states, saying they were overcharged on premiums through the Affordable Care Act — known as Obamacare — during the administration of former President Joe Biden.

In a roughly two-minute recorded video posted to the White House's official X account, Trump said his administration had found that American families who enrolled in health insurance through "the disastrous Obamacare exchange of Sleepy Joe Biden" had been "massively overcharged," Yonhap reported.

Trump said the refunds would be paid "within just a few weeks." Accompanying explanatory materials stated that checks would be sent to eligible Americans starting in October 2026.

That timeline falls before the November midterms, and the move is expected to intensify criticism that the federal government is rolling out vote-buying policies ahead of the election.

The Democratic Party has already sharply condemned Trump's $5,000 dividend pledge as "vote-buying."


yul@heraldcorp.com