GOP lawmakers pump brakes on Trump's $5K check promise: 'Where are you getting the money?'

President Donald Trump's promise of a big payout for Americans if Republicans win the midterms is getting a rocky reception on Capitol Hill. Several Republicans outright oppose the $5,000 check promise, while others offered tacit support in comments to Fox News Digital but hesitated on whether it could actually be delivered. It's a sign that the GOP will have an uphill fight to get the "Trump dividend" approved by Congress — with the president and lawmakers divided over whether it even needs the legislative branch's green light.

Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. "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 powerful committee would likely play a major role in crafting the $5,000 stimulus if it did run through Congress, said he was "skeptical" it could be achieved. TRUMP FACES RECKONING AS GOP FIGURES LABEL $5K PROMISE A 'SOCIALIST VOTE-BUYING SCHEME' "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 told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP DANGLES $5,000 CHECKS AS DEBT SURGES — BUT ONLY IF GOP CAN CLEAR MAJOR MIDTERM HURDLE He added more optimistically, "We just have an idea that we want to get money back to the American people. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said he could support the idea if the sudden injection of cash wouldn't send inflation rates soaring. "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 told Fox News Digital. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, simply said, "The devil's always in the details. I prefer to look at ways of getting people job opportunities." VOTERS HAVE A BLUNT MESSAGE FOR TRUMP ABOUT HIS IDEA TO DOLE OUT $5,000 CHECKS Rep.