Trump defends proposed $5,000 dividend as 'reward,' says 'growth' will pay for it

President Donald Trump defended his proposal to give Americans a $5,000 "dividend" — which some dismissed as a stunt or bribe — seeming to suggest it as a "reward" for voters who he says endured the Biden administration.

The comments came in response to ABC News pressing him on why he would need to offer such a payment if his economic policies are working.

Trump was asked on the tarmac on his way back to Washington, D.C. -- after he closed out night two of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas -- whether the proposed payment amounted to an incentive for voters to turn out in the midterm elections.

The proposed payment to all American adults -- which some estimated would cost $1.3 trillion -- was conditioned on Republicans retaining control of both houses of Congress in the midterms and the money being spent in the U.S.

The White House issued a press release on Thursday that suggests the checks could come from commitments the Trump administration has received from companies to invest in the private sector. It's unclear how those investments, which have not yet materialized, would be made into dividend checks for Americans.

"The U.S. is still $40 trillion in debt, if your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?" ABC News asked the president directly.

Trump rejected the premise that the payment was intended to encourage voter turnout.

"I think what you're going to do -- I didn't do it for turning out the vote, I did it as a reward for people having to put up with five years-four years of horrible situation caused by Biden," Trump said.

Trump then pointed to what he described as problems with the Biden administration's economic and immigration policies.

"I mean, they had to put up with the four years, and they carried on for at least a half an additional year with horrible, just a horrible thing that Biden did to our country," Trump said. "And that's not only just from an economic standpoint. You look at the border, you look at the crime, and now we've got it under control."

"But what, what a period of time," Trump continued. "It's almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden's policy."

Trump has said the proposed $5,000 payments would be funded through what he has described as "tremendous growth."

"We have tremendous growth. We have growth like no country has ever seen before," Trump said. "We have trillions of dollars coming in, and that will end up being not a very big problem at all."

Many members of Congress have expressed opposition to Trump's plan, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slamming the move.

"Trump’s presidency is so failed and broken, he is resorting to trying to bribe the American people for their votes," Schumer wrote in a social media post.

Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, who serves as the vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus, joked in a social media post that "If Democrats flip the House and Senate everyone will get a $10,000 dividend, and a pony, and free ice cream for life."

Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said he fears the payments would cause more inflation and accused Trump of trying to buy votes.

"Frankly, I'm insulted by the notion that my vote this November could be bought for 5k," Massie wrote in a post on X.

Just last year, the president declared that every American would get a $2,000 rebate check paid for by tariff revenue.

"A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," he wrote on his social media platform in November 2025. That has not happened yet.

Even the most generous accounting, such as Penn Wharton's Budget Model, estimates the tariffs brought in roughly $300 billion. And that's not counting the money the Treasury has had to pay back to American companies after the Supreme Court ruled Trump's tariff regime illegal. As a result of those debts, the government is currently paying out more in tariff revenue than it is collecting.

ABC News’ Justin Fishel and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.