Donald Trump’s $5,000 dividend is another empty promise with a huge price | Opinion

A day before the somber 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, President Donald Trump evoked situation comedy by promising a $5,000 dividend to every adult American citizen if Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress in the November elections.

Remember that episode of “The Office,” where Steve Carell’s character, Michael Scott, promises to pay the college tuition of an entire third-grade class of inner city kids if they graduate from high school? “I’ve made some empty promises in my life, but, hands down, that was the most generous,” Scott said.

Called “Scott’s Tots,” the episode eventually led to the cringeworthy conclusion of Michael Scott admitting he’s broke and offering to buy the kids’ laptop batteries instead.

Like Scott’s, Trump’s offer is one of his most generous empty promises.

Is it a bribe? But most importantly, how would America pay for it?

Since the country recently surpassed $40 trillion in debt and is projected to run a deficit of roughly $2 trillion this fiscal year, it can scarcely afford another unfunded payout. At about $1.2 trillion, the proposal would cost more than the Pentagon’s entire annual budget.

We could raise taxes to pay for it, but that would defeat the purpose of promising free money. We could cut spending or divert existing funds, but neither is likely to happen. Or we could borrow the money, taking on still more debt to pay ourselves with our own money. Any of those options would be inflationary, unnecessary and terrible fiscal policy.

Unlike Trump’s previous $2,000 dividend plan, which was supposedly to be funded by tariffs, this plan doesn’t even pretend to have a funding source. In fact, it’s not even a real proposal at the moment. It’s a pinky swear that you’ll be given money in exchange for your vote.

But pay attention. There’s something here for everyone to learn.

Republicans, especially so-called conservatives, are supposedly against socialism, but have no problem with Trump quacking like a duck. We already have public ownership of private companies (“Seize the means of production, comrade!”), and it is nothing more than income redistribution.

If it shocks you that Trump could embrace something with Marxist overtones, welcome to horseshoe theory, in which the far left and far right converge in their appetite for government overreach.

If you’re a Democrat and you hate this, welcome to economics! Yes, this is a bad idea from Trump, but it’s also bad when you guys do it. Under then-President Joe Biden, we saw lots of these kinds of giveaways, like $400-plus billion in student loan write-offs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom did it too with $9.5 billion in “inflation relief” checks. Of course, he at least had a constitutional requirement to give taxpayers back some money — he just made sure it landed in mailboxes four weeks before his own reelection instead of any other month on the calendar.

Even if those $5,000 Trump dividend checks arrive one day, they’ll only make inflation worse. And what would you rather have? More taxes and debt to give yourself back your own money? Or sensible policymaking that leaves you with more cash in the first place and doesn’t require being bribed for your vote in order to make it happen?

I hope we can agree that sensible policymaking is preferable. Hopefully, Trump’s Trump dividend is so absurd and so nakedly corrupt that we can come together as a country and start demanding better.

Unlike Scott, it’s unlikely Trump would ever come clean for his deception, and I hope that we don’t get runaway inflation and institutionalized corruption as our laptop battery.

Matt Fleming is an opinion writer living in Placer County. You can follow him on X @Flemingwords or connect via email: flemingwords@gmail.com.

This story was originally published September 12, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Donald Trump’s $5,000 dividend is another empty promise with a huge price | Opinion."