Trump's $5,000 Vote Checks Face Legal, Funding Doubts

President Donald Trump is doubling down on a promise to send every adult U.S. citizen a $5,000 check if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate in November — a plan that lawyers say he cannot legally order on his own and that the administration has yet to fund.

The Associated Press calculated the payout would cost about $1.23 trillion, based on the number of adult citizens who could be eligible.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the money will not come from taxpayers. His main example is a visa program for wealthy foreigners that has not launched yet.

The Platinum Card Math

Lutnick told NBC News that more than 100,000 people are on the waiting list for the administration's Trump Platinum Card. "We have a waitlist of more than 100,000 people who want to come," he said. "That's $500 billion."

Under the program, foreign nationals would pay a $15,000 processing fee plus a $5 million contribution to the government in exchange for spending up to 270 days a year in the United States without U.S. tax on their non-U.S. income. The official Trump Card website still lists the Platinum Card as "coming soon," and the government says the $5 million is collected only when an applicant proceeds through the process — so a waiting-list slot is not revenue.

Even if all 100,000 qualified and paid in full, $500 billion covers roughly 41 percent of the estimated cost, according to Newsweek's calculation. Funding the whole thing this way would take about 246,000 people writing $5 million checks.

The comparable Gold Card, launched in December 2025 at $1 million plus a $15,000 fee, offers an expedited path to permanent residency. Lutnick initially said the government sold $1.3 billion "worth" of Gold Cards within days; at a House hearing in April he said just one person had actually been approved, with "hundreds" still in the queue.

The Tariff Math

Vice President JD Vance has suggested tariff revenue could cover the checks, and Trump has repeatedly tied the dividend to his trade policy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the government had collected about $167 billion in tariff revenue during the current fiscal year at the time Trump announced the plan — several times less than the payout would cost. FactCheck.org calculated it would take more than six years of tariff revenue at the recent pace to cover a single round of $5,000 payments.

Lutnick has also pointed to the government's Intel stake, which gave the Commerce Department up to 433.3 million shares as part of an $8.9 billion investment, plus conditional warrants. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has said the dividend could move through a congressional budget reconciliation package.