During President Trump’s midterm convention rally in Dallas, Texas, Vice President JD Vance was asked by Fox News host Bret Baier to defend Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans maintain power in bothe chambers of Congress after the midterm elections. Baier referred to the $5,000 promise as a dividend.
Baier said, “So the Trump dividend will raise some eyebrows. $5,000 for every adult citizen if the House wins.”
He added, “So you do the quick math, that’s about $1.3 trillion. I can hear the critics’ heads exploding.”
Baier said that the critics will say “‘the president is bribing voters to vote for Republicans to take over the House, and then he’s bankrupting the country because the deficit and debt is huge and inflation would come back.’”
Vance defended the President’s proposal by saying, “It’s a dividend for American workers. We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue from tariffs.”
The Vice President added: “What the president is saying is if you keep us in power, then you’re going to share in some of the benefits of this incredible wealth we’re creating in the United States. I don’t think it’s a controversial idea. It’s the President saying, ‘we’re all working together, we’re all on the same team, and if we continue to build wealth, that wealth is going to go back to the American people.’”
The claim that federal budget is so overrun with surplus cash that Washington can afford to spend $1.3 trillion on “rebates” is so detached from reality that I refuse to waste my time walking through the math.
If that makes sense to you, you are beyond help. https://t.co/IiOxtZLUiS
— Jessica Riedl
(@JessicaBRiedl) September 10, 2026
Former Heritage Foundation economist Jessica Riedl, who served as a director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign and was the lead architect of the 10-year deficit-reduction plan for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, slammed Vance for his remarks.
Riedl wrote on social media: “The claim that the federal budget is so overrun with surplus cash that Washington can afford to spend $1.3 trillion on ‘rebates’ is so detached from reality that I refuse to waste my time walking through the math. If that makes sense to you, you are beyond help.”
An X community note added context to Vance’s remarks: “Annual tariff revenue (under $300B) cannot fund a $1.3T payout, and distributing funds requires congressional approval. Previous cash dividend promises were also never delivered, including the 2025 DOGE dividend and proposed $2,000 tariff rebates.”
The group Republicans Against Trump also criticized Vance for his comments: “Tariffs bring in revenue for the government, but American importers pay them, not foreign countries. And consumers ultimately pay much of the cost through higher prices.”
BREAKING: Trump is promising to give $5,000 to every adult American if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate in November.
(That’s more than $1.2 trillion, btw.) pic.twitter.com/0mKpwLOLce
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 10, 2026
[NOTE: According to a November 2025 report by the Tax Foundation: “President Trump has repeatedly called for sending $2,000 ‘tariff dividends’ to low- and middle-income Americans, saying revenues from his increased import taxes can cover the cost and still pay down the debt. While doing so would require an act of Congress, and details on the proposed $2,000 payments have not been fully fleshed out, we model a range of options to illustrate the potential price tag and compare that cost to expected tariff revenues. We estimate the cost of different designs would range from $279.8 billion to $606.8 billion—more than what tariffs will raise in 2025.”]
Former Trump ally and ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: “Last week Republicans voted to condemn socialism, and this week the VP rolls out a $9,000 welfare plan for stay at home parents and POTUS promises $5,000 checks, costing approx $1.6 trillion, if Americans vote for Republicans. No matter which party you vote for you get socialism.”