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President Donald Trump has vowed to issue $5,000 dividends to every U.S. adult if Republicans hold on to control of Congress in November, a brazen offer of financial support to voters with less than two months until midterm elections.Trump announced the plan on Sept. 9 while speaking at the GOP's first-ever midterm convention, a two-day affair aiming to stunt Democrats ahead of Election Day."Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000," he said.It's not fully clear how the dividends would be paid for or how much they would cost, though the president did credit funds from the tariffs he has levied on imports for making it possible.But some critics are already denouncing it as illegal.A federal statute makes it illegal to offer or make an expenditure to any person to vote or withhold a vote. A willful violation of the statute comes with a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine, according to Cornell Law School.Trump's latest message echoes similar pledges from the president in the past, including a push for $2,000 tariff dividend checks for some Americans last year, which never came to fruition."Please pretend that I'm running and get out and vote on November 3rd or sooner," he said. "Because in actuality I really am running."Are Americans getting $5,000 dividends? What Trump saidTrump said he would give $5,000 dividends to each U.S. adult if Republicans win control of both the Senate and House of Representatives in November.But there would be one condition for the payment, which the president called the "Trump dividend.""The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we're making must be spent in the United States of America," Trump said. "We don't want you going to Canada to spend the money. We don't want you going to China, to Germany. You got to spend the money in the United States of America."The president did not reveal exactly how the dividends would work or where the funds would come from, though he did nod to a defining policy of his second term: tariffs."The reason the Democrats can't do that is because they don't do tariffs," he said.Congress would also likely have to approve the funds because it oversees federal spending.'Trump dividend' is not the president's first payment promiseTrump's latest vow for $5,000 dividends if Republicans win in midterms is not the first such promise the president has made.For months in 2025, he discussed a plan to give $2,000 dividends to some Americans using tariff revenue. But while Trump at one point said the checks would go out in mid-2026, the payments never materialized.Also in December last year, Trump announced that all military members would receive $1,776 in bonuses. Those checks were paid for with Defense Department funding as appropriated from the "Big Beautiful Bill" – not tariff revenue.In early 2025, Trump's since-dismantled Department of Government Efficiency also floated the idea of $5,000 stimulus checks funded by the agency's accrued savings. But those dividends also never arrived, and DOGE officially shut down earlier this year.What do midterm polls show?The so-called "Trump dividend" would be an extraordinary move to win over voters as the GOP looks to maintain its slim majorities in each of the chambers. But Republicans appear to be trailing, at least according to recent polling.A Sept. 4-8 poll from The Economist/YouGov of more than 1,400 registered voters found that 42% of respondents plan on voting Democrat in the November election, over the 35% who said they plan to vote Republican.Similarly, according to an Aug. 31 Reuters/Ipsos survey of more than 920 registered voters, 43% said that, if the election were held today, they would vote Democrat. Thirty-eight percent said they would vote Republican.
