Dallas, Texas — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he does not believe Congress would need to approve his proposed $5,000 “Trump Dividend,” but federal appropriations law indicates otherwise.
Trump unveiled the proposal at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, promising $5,000 to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate. In an interview with CBS Texas the following day, Trump called the payments “a great infusion” and said they would be funded by tariff revenue and required to be spent in the United States.
Asked whether Congress would need to approve the payments, Trump said he did not think so.
However, the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause gives Congress control over federal spending. The Government Accountability Office states that “no money can be paid out of the Treasury unless it has been appropriated by an act of Congress.” Federal agencies generally cannot spend or obligate public money without statutory authority.
A Media Bias/Fact Check review of the proposal reached the same conclusion, noting that Trump cannot simply order the checks himself. It estimated the plan would cost roughly $1.23 trillion for about 245 million adult citizens, far exceeding projected annual tariff revenue.
The promise itself is unlikely to constitute illegal vote buying because the payments would go to eligible adults regardless of how, or whether, they voted. But actually issuing the checks would require Congress to authorize the spending unless lawmakers had already created a separate legal funding mechanism covering such payments.
For now, the $5,000 dividend remains a campaign proposal rather than an authorized federal program.
Sources
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