Every American adult will receive a check if Republicans maintain control of both chambers of Congress in November's midterm elections, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. Within hours, some Republicans were breaking with Trump over how the proposal would be funded and whether it was realistic, while others rallied behind it. At the first Republican midterm convention in Dallas' American Airlines Center, Trump said he would send $5,000 to every adult American citizen if Republicans hold the House and Senate.
He framed it as a reward for the economy Republicans have built. "Because of our tremendous economic success," he told the crowd, the payout would go to every adult citizen in the country. Fiscal conservatives, watching from home, did not.
GOP Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie broke with Trump over the proposal, calling it an insult and saying he could not “in good conscience accept a penny less than 10K.” He also warned about the inflation that could result from such a large payment. Former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also questioned the plan, linking it to a separate proposal from Vice President JD Vance to provide benefits to stay-at-home parents. Greene estimated that the two proposals could cost about $1.6 trillion.
She argued that Republicans who had spent the previous week criticizing Democrats over socialism were now proposing a large government payment of their own. Justin Amash, a former Republican congressman who left the party, also criticized the proposal and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who applauded Trump’s announcement. Amash called the plan “economically illiterate” and described it as a “trillion-dollar-plus redistribution scheme.” Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.
The criticism reflects a long-standing divide within the Republican Party over government spending and Trump's populist economic proposals. Massie and Texas Representative Chip Roy have frequently opposed spending measures they consider too costly, while other Republicans have embraced Trump's focus on direct economic benefits. The reaction was not limited to social media.
Roy, who is retiring at the end of his term, questioned how the government would pay for a proposal that he estimated could cost more than $1 trillion. The estimate is in line with outside analyses putting the cost of a $5,000 payment to every adult citizen at roughly $1.2 trillion to $1.35 trillion. A Republican operative was more critical, telling Politico's Inside Congress that the proposal appeared to be an attempt to change the political conversation.
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