House Speaker Mike Johnson said President Donald Trump would need congressional approval to follow through with his plan to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans keep their majorities in November’s midterms.
When asked if he intended to carry out what the president has dubbed the “Trump Dividend,” Johnson praised the idea on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday but signaled that it would need lawmakers’ approval.
“He’d need Congress to act, and that’s a creative idea,” Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Of course, the devil’s in the details. We have to figure all that out. But I think what he was articulating there, Jake, is that he’s saying that, if you want more money in your pocket, you have to keep Republicans in charge.”
Trump announced the $5,000 checks at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last week, saying “that alone should win the midterms.” The president added the only condition is that Americans must spend that stimulus money in the United States.
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The president has made similar promises to pay Americans with dividends from tariffs and his administration’s efforts to root out what it deemed wasteful government spending — though no checks have come to fruition.
The latest $5,000 payment, which would cost more than $1.2 trillion, came as a surprise to senior Republicans across Washington, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who had not been briefed on the idea by the White House or consulted ahead of the announcement.
When asked if Congress should approve the checks, Trump told reporters Sunday in Ireland he didn’t know, “but it should be easy enough if Republicans win.”
Johnson, who has previously said the mounting national debt is the country’s biggest threat, rejected the notion that the dividend plan could add to the $40 trillion debt the country already faces.
“We’re not going to get further in debt if this idea was implemented,” Johnson said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This would be, in the president’s mind, in the way he analogized it, like a dividend check for shareholders,” the speaker said, adding that the funds will come from “tariff revenue and other revenues coming into the country.”
Trump promised the checks to voters if Republicans stay in power this election cycle, but Johnson would only commit to having Congress “work through it and find consensus on that, like I have to do everything else.”
Since Trump announced the policy, several Republicans have spoken out against sending the checks, including some whom Johnson would need to pass the proposal through the House with its current narrow margins.
Rep. David Schweikert (R-Arizona) told Reuters he “would personally throw everything of my heart and soul to stop it, because it would actually do more damage to working people than would ever help them.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference last week that the policy “will lead to more debt and more inflation,” and that the government should focus on cutting taxes rather than checks.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) said he has “serious concerns” about the $5,000 checks and even called out the ethical implications of Trump’s policy.
“Tying government checks to the outcome of an election starts to sound like pay-to-play politics. Republicans should earn the support of the American people through good policy, not by promising another round of checks from Washington,” Norman wrote Thursday on X. “Show me how this is paid for without adding to the debt. Until then, I cannot support it.”
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