Trump's $5,000 check comes with a brutal condition as he makes new promise ahead of elections
Donald Trump has promised American citizens $5,000 if the Republicans win both house of Congress, but it comes with a condition.
Speaking in Alaska on Tuesday night, the president said he is 'going to give all adult citizens in the United States $5,000' if Republicans hold both chambers of Congress in the November Midterms.
It's not without conditions, as he added: "You gotta spend it in the United States of America," he added. "I don't want it going to China."
The rally was aimed at boosting Senator Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent who faces a serious challenge from Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola.
Will Trump’s $5,000 payment actually happen?
Donald Trump told Alaskans during a speech on Tuesday night that Americans must spend the proposed $5,000 in the United States. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)
It is not the first time the president has floated the idea. He made the same promise at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas in early September, calling it the 'Trump Dividend'.
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The proposal, which has no precedent, caught some of his most loyal backers off guard.
Palantir co-founder and GOP donor Joe Lonsdale reacted to the Dallas announcement by saying: “For the record, I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin, but am strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
Previous promises of kind during this second term have never materialized, although Trump did keep his word on the 'warrior dividend', paying $1,776 to 1.4 million military officials in December 2025.
He also offered taxpayers cash with a $5,000 DOGE dividend and a $2,000 Tariff dividend, although neither of those came to fruition.
Funding is another open question. David Zervos, a counselor to the Treasury Secretary, told the National News Desk there is currently no specific plan for how the government would pay for the checks, adding that there is ‘a little bit of’ a ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we get there’ approach.
He said he was not worried about funding them, pointing to the president’s suggestion that growth and prosperity under a sweep would be high enough to afford them.
Is Alaska’s Senate race really competitive?
Trump urged voters to ‘pretend I’m on the ballot’ during the visit, which took place 50 miles north of Anchorage.
Democrats have not held a Senate seat in Alaska in nearly 12 years, yet the visit shows Sullivan’s seat is genuinely contested.
The Cook Report ranks the state as a toss-up, while some polls put Peltola slightly ahead of the two-term incumbent.
Peltola announced earlier Tuesday that her campaign raised $17 million in the third quarter, a record for an Alaskan US Senate candidate in that period. In 2022, she became the first Indigenous person from the state elected to Congress.
Peltola’s press secretary, Caroline Etgen, told the Daily Mail: “She looks forward to working with President Trump to unleash Alaska energy and lower costs for when she’s elected.”
Rising living costs, fuel and diesel prices worsened by the Iran war, and fisheries are top issues for Alaska voters, with gas averaging $5.02 compared to $3.87 a year ago.
Trump also announced that Taiwan has committed to buying 30 percent of Alaska’s new liquified natural gas pipeline ‘for the next 20 years’, though other terms of the deal remain unclear.
Trump plans to visit Arizona and Montana on Wednesday.
UNILAD has approached the White House for comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, Alaska, Politics
Thomas Bamford