President Donald Trump teased a $ 5,000 “Trump dividend” in his speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday night, promising the payout if Republicans maintained control of Congress in the November 2026 elections.
Trump claimed such a dividend was possible because of the country’s economic success under his leadership. The crowd responded enthusiastically to the proposal, and many of the president’s supporters expressed delight at the prospect of receiving $5,000.
“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic, tremendous economic success — in history we’ve never had anything like what’s happening — but 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,” said Trump.
However, not everyone was thrilled with the idea, and some of Trump’s critics dismissed it as a disingenuous, implausible enticement, including former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod. He ridiculed the proposal and insinuated that those who believed Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend would come to fruition were foolish, while taking shots at some of the president’s beautification projects in Washington, D.C.
“If you really believe that you’re going to get a $5000 check from @POTUS for voting Republican this fall, he probably has an arch in Washington he wants to sell you,” Axelrod said in a post on X.
TRUMP PROMISES $5,000 DIVIDEND FOR EVERY AMERICAN ADULT IF GOP WINS MIDTERM ELECTIONS
It was the only social media post by the CNN political commentator and frequent Trump critic about the president’s speech and the first night of the convention. In recent weeks, the former Obama administration official criticized the overall idea of a Republican convention for midterm elections, the first such convention in modern political history, saying that no Republican mired in a difficult race really “wants to attend” the convention.
“If they’re being honest, no rational Republican who has a truly contested race in November wants to attend a midterm @GOP convention in Dallas shortly after Labor Day that will feature a deeply unpopular @POTUS, who hangs from their necks like the anchor off the Queen Mary 2,” Axelrod posted on X on Aug. 30.