Trump promises $5,000 payout to every US adult if Republicans win midterms

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1334 EAT on Thursday 10 September 2026

The offer was made in a speech at the party’s first-ever convention held midway through a US presidential term.

Trump provided no details on how the proposed payments would be implemented or funded, saying only that the money would have to be spent in the United States. Vice-President JD Vance has linked the proposal to revenue generated by the US government through tariffs imposed under Trump.

Democrats have dismissed the proposal as an “empty promise”, while others have questioned whether such a payout would be legally permissible or financially feasible.

It could mark the first time a US president has proposed such a direct payment to Americans in an election-year appeal urging voters to turn out at the polls.

The proposal drew loud applause at the convention, with Trump appearing to embrace the enthusiastic response.

With nearly 270 million adults in the United States, a $5,000 payment to each adult would cost the government approximately $1.3 trillion.

Questions have begun to emerge over whether his plan is feasible, particularly as prices rise in the US, partly due to the war the US and Israel launched against Iran in February.

Iran’s retaliation has included attacks on US bases and allies in the Gulf. Crucially, Tehran has largely blocked the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes.

The disruption has triggered fluctuations in global oil prices, while President Donald Trump has faced pressure from members of his own party to end the war.

On Wednesday, Trump warned his supporters that the war would not end until after the midterm elections and that oil prices would not fall until then.

He made the remarks ahead of a speech in Texas and repeated them at the convention, where he argued that short-term economic pain was necessary to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

Trump’s lengthy speech at the Republican convention in Dallas, Texas, focused on a central issue in the conflict: its impact on Americans’ standard of living. His pledge to boost Americans’ spending power drew loud applause from the audience.

“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them,” Trump said, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”

“We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money,” he said.

“We don’t want you going to China, to Germany. You’ve got to spend the money in the United States of America.”

However, it was not immediately clear how the spending would be monitored.

The BBC has asked the White House for further clarification on how Trump’s plan would work.

Former Republican strategist and pollster Robert Moran said the promise should be viewed in the context of an election that is now less than two months away.

“It is an extraordinary promise, and I’m not sure where that money is going to come from – but it is campaign season,” Moran told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

He described the proposal as a “novel solution to an interesting problem”, noting that the president’s party has historically tended to lose seats in Congress during midterm elections.

However, some experts say the promise made by Trump during Wednesday’s speech could be viewed as a pledge to cut taxes, which would be legal.

John Day, a lawyer in New Mexico, said the proposal would be legal because it was a campaign promise made to all adult US citizens, rather than a “payment to individuals to try to get them to vote in a particular way,” he told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, an election law expert who spoke to The New York Times said Trump’s promise would also be protected by the free-speech guarantees of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

-BBC

Invest or Donate towards HICGI New Agency Global Media Establishment – Watch video here