President Trump released a new video ad this week repeating his pledge of $5,000 for every adult citizen if Republicans keep the House and the Senate in the Nov. 4 midterms.
"I'm going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000," Trump said in the video, posted to X.
"Democrat policies won't allow this to happen. In fact, the opposite."
If the GOP wins Congress, "you will each have $5,000 in your pocket, and economic success for our country like we have never ever seen before," he said, adding that Democrats would raise taxes or even create "an economic depression."
He made the same promise at an Oct. 7 rally in San Antonio for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Local12 reported, without saying how it would be funded or whether Congress would have to approve it. At roughly 270 million adult citizens, $5,000 each would cost about $1.35 trillion, by ZeroHedge's math on the headcount.
As the Epoch Times notes further, the president first made reference to the payments last month during a speech in Dallas designed to boost Republican voter turnout during the midterms, although some members of his own party have publicly said they do not support the plan.
In one example of GOP pushback, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote in a post on X about the dividend payment proposal: "Some of us think dependency is evil [and] soul-sucking in all its forms."
Among Democrats, many have said that the proposal would add to the U.S. national debt and increase inflation.
In a post to X several weeks ago, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) accused the president of trying "to pay off voters" in a bid that he said "would explode the deficit, drive up the cost of home and auto loans, and send inflation skyrocketing."
The White House would likely need congressional approval to send out the payments, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a Sept. 13 CNN interview. But Trump said at about the same time, in a CBS interview, that he may not need lawmakers to act.
Since last month's Dallas event, Trump has frequently made reference to the possible payments in speeches and on social media, including during a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, over the past weekend.
"If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate ... I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000," Trump said at the event. "Only Republicans can do it."
Tariff revenue would pay for those payments, he said at the Oct. 9 Clarksville event. He also suggested that new factories, plants, and other investments would create revenue and enough economic growth to cover the costs.
In a separate announcement, Trump also said his administration is sending health insurance-related rebate payments to certain people, including those who he said were overcharged via Affordable Care Act exchanges and to seniors enrolled in Medicare Part B.
An email that was seen by The Epoch Times last week, sent by Trump, indicated that $90 payments to Medicare recipients were going out. Some 20 million people would get the payments, the email states.
Last month, Trump released a social media video announcing that $500 rebate payments would be sent to nearly 1 million people who the administration stated were overcharged via Obamacare health care exchanges under the Biden administration.