Trump promises 5,000 dollars to every American adult at Republican convention

US President Donald Trump has pledged to send every American adult 5,000 dollars (£3,691) if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, in an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.

The promise would probably cost more than one trillion dollars (£738.3 billion) and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly 1.8 trillion dollar (£1.3 trillion) annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get 5,000 dollars,” Mr Trump said during the the Republican party’s midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump dividend.”

He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically”.

Within an hour, vice president JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Mr Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy.

Mr Vance suggested it could be paid for by US tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the US has taken in through the protectionist measures.

The White House did not respond to a message seeking details.

Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court threw out much of the president’s tariff programme last year.

The national debt last month topped 40 trillion dollars for the first time.

Mr Trump has frequently lamented that, during the modern era, the president’s party almost always loses seats in Congress during the midterms, and he has looked for unorthodox ways to defy the trend, including this week’s convention.

“We’re going to change that,” Mr Trump said. “There’s no reason for it.”

Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Mr Trump has no authority to send money to Americans without approval from Congress.

Mr Goldwein added that dividends are something that companies pay when there’s a surplus, but the US is running two trillion dollar annual deficits.

“The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,” he said. “We don’t have surpluses to give away.”

A 5,000 dollar cheque would give each American more money than they received in direct government payments from Covid-19 relief measures during Mr Trump’s first term.

Mr Trump’s proposal would be legal because the payment would go to everyone regardless of how they voted, or whether they voted at all, said New Mexico-based lawyer John Day.

“This is a campaign promise,” Mr Day said. “It’s not a payment to individuals to try to get them to vote in a particular way.”

Republicans are on the defence as they look to defend their narrow House majority against strong headwinds. Mr Trump is unpopular, and Americans overwhelmingly oppose the war in Iran. Even the Senate, which Republicans once were well-positioned to keep, is up for grabs.