Fox News host Laura Ingraham didn’t pull any punches when she sat down with President Donald Trump, pressing him directly on his headline-grabbing promise of $5,000 “dividend” checks for every American citizen.
At Wednesday night’s GOP midterm convention, Trump vowed that if Republicans hold onto control of Congress after the midterms, every American citizen would receive a $5,000 check. It’s a promise Trump has made repeatedly, and Ingraham wanted answers.
In a preview clip aired by Fox’s Sandra Smith ahead of Thursday night’s full interview on The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham asked the president point blank: “Why not just give the money now? If you have the money, why not give it now?”
Trump’s response leaned into the economic case for his administration’s approach. “Because the Democrats can’t do it. Because for them, it’s negative growth. With us, it’s so positive,” Trump said. He pointed to record government revenue, saying the country is bringing in $21 trillion — a figure he says is four or five times higher than any other nation has ever collected — crediting tariffs as the driving force behind it.
Smith also brought the question to Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who gave the proposal a full endorsement. Mast said he hopes the first vote taken when Congress returns to Washington next week is on this very issue. He argued the checks could boost a senior’s fixed income on Social Security by as much as 20 percent this year, and framed the payments as a fair return for global access to the American consumer market — access, he said, that Trump is now making other countries pay for through tariffs.
Not everyone is on board, however. Conservative critics have started pushing back hard on the plan, with some calling it a “socialist” scheme, others going as far as labeling it outright “bribery,” and still others describing it as “deeply irresponsible.”
National Review’s Charles Cooke didn’t hold back either, writing that calling the payments a “dividend” would only make sense if the United States had no debt, a budget surplus, and five percent annual growth — none of which currently applies. Cooke noted the country is $40 trillion in debt, with this year’s deficit expected to top $2 trillion, and estimated that sending $5,000 checks to every adult would cost around $1.3 trillion, more than the entire 2026 federal discretionary budget.
The full Ingraham-Trump sit-down airs Thursday night on Fox News’s America Reports.