President Donald Trump’s promise to send Americans a $5,000 payout if Republicans win the midterms is running into resistance from within his own party on Capitol Hill.
Several Republican lawmakers told Fox News Digital they oppose the idea outright, while others gave only cautious, conditional support. The reactions suggest the White House will face a difficult path getting what’s been called the “Trump dividend” through Congress, especially since the president and lawmakers don’t even agree on whether congressional approval is required in the first place.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., rejected the plan flatly. “I disagree with it. It’s pay-to-play,” Norman said. “You shouldn’t pay anybody to vote your conscience. Plus, where are you getting the money? I think we’re in debt $40 trillion.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., whose committee would likely have to draft any such stimulus, said he was “skeptical” the plan could happen. “Take a billion dollars. … I’d rather use it to either bolster defense or save Social Security. I think that’s a better use of the money. But, again, we have to see what we’re looking at. Right now, we don’t have a bill,” Cole said. He added, more favorably, “We just have an idea that we want to get money back to the American people. I like that.”
Other Republicans said they could back some version of the idea, but only with restrictions. Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said he’d support it if it wouldn’t push inflation higher. “But it ought to be limited — people that are working, people that are paying taxes. I don’t think we should just send paychecks out to everybody willy-nilly,” Rutherford said.
Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, was noncommittal: “The devil’s always in the details. I prefer to look at ways of getting people job opportunities.”
Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., said he appreciated Trump’s directness but favored a different approach. “If we can structure tax incentives, if we can do some type of — whether it’s a cut, whether it’s a rebate, something in that vein, I think it’s probably a little better policy than mailing people a check just because they’re here,” Knott said.
Some Republicans back the idea
Support wasn’t universal opposition, however. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said he favored some form of rebate. “I think that hardworking Americans, probably taxpayers, deserve a tax rebate. We’re going to have to discuss how large a rebate that’ll be,” Harris said, suggesting the $5,000 figure itself could be negotiated. “That’s a good idea.” Harris said any such measure should go through Congress, likely via the reconciliation process Republicans used to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, proposed funding the checks through money recovered from federal fraud crackdowns. “Why don’t we continue the president’s approach towards fraud and give a dividend to the people of this great country who that money was stolen from?” Pfluger said, arguing hundreds of billions of dollars were lost to fraud under the previous administration.
Cost and legal questions remain
Sending $5,000 to every American adult could cost at least $1 trillion by some estimates — a substantial share of the federal government’s annual budget. A price tag of that size would typically require congressional sign-off, but Trump has suggested otherwise.
“I think they will do it if we needed it, but I think not,” Trump told CBS News when asked whether Congress would need to approve the stimulus.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., offered a different view earlier this week on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying, “I would assume, yes, he’d need Congress to act.”
