Trump’s Dividend Proposal Catches Republicans by Surprise

Dallas — President Donald Trump once again caught Republican lawmakers by surprise with his proposal to give Americans a $5,000 dividend.

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Details about the policy, which Trump proposed at the Republican Party’s special midterm convention here on Wednesday night, were scant, but Republicans praised at least the idea of the proposal, even if they did not know exactly how the White House would go about doing it.

“Republicans have been fighting fraud, waste, and abuse in a lot of the mandatory programs,” Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told National Review. “We should probably take half of those savings, apply half to the deficit, and then send the other half to citizens as a dividend check.”

Harris was skeptical that such an initiative would amount to $5,000 to every citizen, however.

“I think the idea of sharing savings, especially when you’re fighting fraud, waste, and abuse, is a good idea,” he said.

GOP lawmakers once again find themselves in the position of having to defend a surprise policy drop from the White House. Trump promised in his speech that if Republicans kept the House of Representatives and Senate, he would send out the money.

“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,” he said on the convention’s main stage.

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The White House has yet to illustrate how the proposal, which would cost over $1 trillion, would be paid for. Trump previously promised a $2,000 tariff dividend that never materialized.

“I think the point he’s making and the point Republicans are making is that, with a growing economy, you cut the tax burden, you cut the regulatory burden, you get investment, you grow the economy, you get rising wages, and we are more about making sure people control their dollars and not hand all their dollars to government,” Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota told reporters.

Meanwhile, Representative Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, who chairs the House Committee on Agriculture, was a bit more skeptical due to the lack of clarity on how to put the policy in place.

“I just don’t know a lot of detail on what he’s talking about, and how do we pay for it?” he told NR. “It could be a significant amount of money that we don’t have.”

Though Trump conditioned his promise on Republicans keeping both chambers of Congress, he said Thursday that he believed he could send out the money without congressional approval.

Thompson disagreed.

“I would certainly think” Trump would need a green light from Congress, Thompson said. “I’m an Article I guy. I respect the executive branch, but I’m a legislative branch guy.”

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