US President Donald Trump pledged on Wednesday to send every American adult a $5,000 check if Republicans keep control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, a promise that was widely seen as a desperate ploy to distract from a flagging economy and the destructive impacts of the Iran war.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000," Trump declared in his address to the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. The president, who recently railed against Medicare for All as too costly, called his proposed payment “the Trump Dividend,” but did not mention its potential price tag. Snap estimates indicate the checks, which would require congressional approval, would likely cost more than $1.3 trillion—close to the size of the discretionary federal budget.

Warren Gunnels, staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—the leading Medicare for All champion in Congress—derided Trump’s promise by comparing it to other campaign pledges that have not materialized.

“Yeah, just like we got a $2,000 tariff refund, a 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a 500% cut in prescription drug prices, $2 gas, oh wait…what?” Gunnels wrote on social media.

“Here is my promise, if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the U.S Senate, both of them…because of our tremendous strength and success economically I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.” pic.twitter.com/Iy7OVq5vpk
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 10, 2026

Trump’s midterm pledge came days after he responded dismissively to a reporter’s question about Medicare for All, which would provide every person in the US with comprehensive health coverage at a lower cost overall than the current, privatized system.

The president falsely claimed that a single-payer system would cost “the entire budget of the whole country.” But a recent study by researchers at Yale University estimated that Medicare for All would save the US roughly $1 trillion per year in national healthcare expenditures while also saving more than 114,000 lives annually.

Trump also suggested earlier this year that the federal government can’t afford to pay for childcare and other programs because “we’re fighting wars.”

A recent analysis by the Joint Economic Committee found that the average household in the US has had to pay an additional $3,800 on energy and other essentials since the start of Trump’s second term, in part due to the president’s decision to launch an illegal war on Iran.

The Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University estimates that Trump’s war on Iran has cost US consumers over $102 billion extra, combined, on gas and diesel fuel.

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