2026-09-10T21:24:56.364Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/10/politics/5000-checks-trump
两名知情人士告诉CNN，唐纳德·特朗普总统誓言，如果共和党保持对国会的控制权，将向所有美国成年人发放5000美元，这一决定让他的多名政府官员和盟友措手不及，促使美方在周四内部紧急敲定该提案的具体细节。
一名特朗普政治顾问告诉CNN，特朗普是在共和党中期代表大会的演讲中作出这一承诺的，此前他仅与包括杰森·米勒和詹姆斯·布莱尔在内的一小圈亲密政治顾问讨论过此事。这导致政府多数官员毫无准备，难以应对这项耗资1万亿美元的提案引发的后续风波，该提案已因其成本和可行性遭到广泛反对。
多名共和党议员随即批评这一想法是11月中期选举前的误导性策略，称其几乎不可能在国会通过，更不用说它违背了该党的许多核心经济原则。即便在代表大会会场内，也有一些与会者持怀疑态度。
“我不想要免费的东西，”阿灵顿的小企业主威尔玛·梅在达拉斯接受CNN采访时表示，“我更希望他拿出5000美元用于削减赤字。”
这一承诺也令共和党经济学家和部分特朗普的亲密盟友感到担忧，其中一些人认为这是在试图拉拢选民以维持共和党执政地位的拙劣手段。
“大家都在深挖这到底是谁的主意，这太令人费解了，”特朗普的外部经济顾问斯蒂芬·穆尔说道，他反对这一想法，“给民众发放支票实际上会产生负面的经济后果。”
特朗普在周三晚间的演讲中几乎未透露该提案的细节，仅暗示资金可能来自对外国商品征收的关税收入。特朗普此前曾提出过一系列由关税收入或其他节省资金资助的面向全体美国人的“分红”计划，但从未兑现过。
一名官员透露，周四上午，白宫官员们争相梳理落实这一前所未有的最新承诺所需的后勤工作。
但白宫随后发布的情况说明显示，相关工作仍在推进中；该说明未提及政府计划如何为这笔付款提供资金，也未说明资金来源。
“打破了华盛顿此前认为不可能实现的界限的同一届领导层，如今准备直接向美国人的口袋里送去5000美元，”白宫在未提供具体细节的情况下表示。
一名白宫官员驳斥了特朗普让助手措手不及的说法，他告诉CNN，特朗普“在演讲前已经与高级幕僚讨论过这个想法，不存在任何意外。”
白宫发言人戴维斯·英格尔在一份声明中未直接回应如果共和党保住参众两院席位，将向所有美国成年人发放5000美元的可能性。
“悲观论者和反对者一直都在质疑特朗普总统，”他说，“在美国民众的持续支持下，特朗普总统将继续兑现切实成果。”
特朗普突然作出这一承诺之际，他正努力应对选民对生活成本上涨及其经济政策的日益不满。数月来的民调显示，美国人对总统处理通胀问题的方式极为不满。
持续的伊朗局势紧张进一步恶化了共和党面临的整体经济环境，近几周汽油和柴油价格再次飙升，且看不到明确的结束迹象。本周共和党在达拉斯召开代表大会期间，全球和美国基准油价均升至每桶100美元以上，周四柴油均价更是创下每加仑5.98美元的历史新高。
特朗普多次淡化民众对经济负担的担忧，周三晚间将这一问题斥为民主党为在政治上打击他而编造的议题，并坚称美国正处于“财政和其他各方面最成功的两年”之中。
但政府最近几周却含蓄地承认经济困境正对共和党造成拖累，愈发强调旨在降低日常消费品成本的举措，比如绞肉和某些药品的价格。
特朗普曾在2020年新冠疫情期间签署法案，向美国人发放了两轮1200美元的刺激支票，此后他多次提出直接向选民发放现金以赢得政治支持的想法。
去年，他提出了5000美元的“狗狗币分红”计划，与他削减联邦 workforce 所带来的所谓储蓄挂钩。最近，特朗普又承诺发放2000美元的支票，资金来自关税收入。但这些计划均未实现。
特朗普的最新提案面临的成功几率更低——这一现实促使包括部分特朗普盟友在内的众多怀疑论者将该想法斥为纯粹的政治手段。
“明确一下，我非常支持赢得中期选举，也非常支持本届政府的很多举措，但我强烈反对这种收买人心的‘面包与马戏’手段，”与小唐纳德·特朗普关系密切的共和党捐赠者乔·朗斯代尔周三晚间在X平台上写道。据知情人士透露，朗斯代尔周三晚间在代表大会场外与小唐纳德·特朗普及其他知名共和党人共同主办了一场大型筹款活动。
国会共和党人需要起草并通过法案，批准这笔超过1万亿美元的付款——根据国会预算办公室的数据，这笔金额相当于2025财年政府所有可自由支配支出总额的一半以上。虽然一些议员立即支持这一想法——俄亥俄州参议员伯尼·莫雷诺承诺将在11月前提交相关法案——但该提案让共和党领导层感到意外，据一名知情人士透露，他们此前从未就此进行过任何讨论。
在周四播出的福克斯新闻采访中，特朗普似乎承认国会需要批准该提案，指责民主党阻碍了他更早兑现承诺的能力。但他随后又自相矛盾，在哥伦比亚广播公司的采访中表示，虽然共和党“必要时会推进此事”，但他认为无需国会行动就能兑现这笔付款。
这一想法还取决于总统所在政党能否控制参众两院——这一中期选举结果将违背民调趋势和数十年的政治先例。
“他面临的风险是，这种公布方式会让提案听起来像个噱头，”前众议院共和党议长纽特·金里奇说道，他补充说自己此前曾与特朗普讨论过分配关税收入的问题，但对周三晚间的宣布感到意外。
还有诸多经济方面的担忧，可能让这样的提案最终仅能成为一个政治口号。至少有两项估算显示，特朗普的提案将给本就面临债务水平快速攀升的联邦预算造成1.2万亿美元的缺口。
关税收入远远不足以覆盖这笔开支。右翼智库税收基金会的分析显示，2027年新增关税仅能筹集约十分之一的所需资金。
“如此大规模的赤字融资分红计划，会向市场传递出美国无意整顿财政秩序的信号，”该基金会高级经济学家埃丽卡·约克在一份声明中表示，“这将有进一步推高利率的风险，加剧通胀压力，并使本试图通过该提案‘解决’的问题进一步恶化。”
另一个联邦预算监督组织称该想法“在财政上危险、经济上倒退，且本质上不严肃”。
“这个考虑不周的政治计划只会让一切变得更糟——扩大赤字、加剧通胀，并进一步推高整个经济的借贷成本，”负责任联邦预算委员会主席玛雅·麦吉尼亚斯在一份声明中说道。
特朗普提出该提案之际，美国正陷入日益加深的债务泥潭。8月中旬，联邦债务创下40万亿美元的历史新高，这一不祥的里程碑将在未来多年影响美国人、企业和政府。
即便不发放分红支票，预计2027财年（始于10月1日）联邦政府的预算赤字也将接近1.9万亿美元。
“这不是一项经济增长提案，”穆尔补充道，即便共和党有资金可供支出，将其投入其他领域会更好。“用这笔资金，你可以将薪资税降低一到两个百分点，将所得税降低两到三个百分点。这实际上能提供经济激励。”
CNN的史蒂夫·孔托尔诺为本报道撰稿。
Trump officials scramble to manage fallout after his $5K check pledge to all Americans
2026-09-10T21:24:56.364Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/10/politics/5000-checks-trump
President Donald Trump blindsided many of his own administration officials and allies with his vow to pay all American adults $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress, prompting an internal scramble on Thursday to backfill the proposal’s specifics, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trump made the pledge during his speech at the GOP’s midterm convention after discussing it with only a small circle of close political advisers, including Jason Miller and James Blair, a Trump political adviser told CNN. That left most officials across the administration unprepared to manage the fallout of a $1 trillion proposal that has already faced widespread blowback over its price tag and feasibility.
Several Republican lawmakers immediately panned the idea as a misguided ploy ahead of November’s midterm elections that would be nearly impossible to pass through Congress — not to mention one that would violate many of the party’s core economic principles. Even on the convention floor, some attendees were skeptical.
“I’m not into free stuff,” Arlington small business owner Wilma May told CNN in Dallas. “I would prefer him to give $5,000 towards paying down the deficit.”
The vow also alarmed GOP economists and some close Trump allies, some of whom dismissed it as a poor attempt to effectively bribe voters to keep Republicans in power.
“It’s a mystery that everybody’s trying to get to the bottom of, whose idea this was,” said Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump, who opposes the idea. “The problem with sending people checks is it actually has a negative economic consequence.”
Trump offered few details about the proposal during his speech on Wednesday night, suggesting only that it might draw on revenue collected as a result of tariffs on foreign goods. Trump has previously floated a series of other “dividends” for all Americans funded by tariff revenue or other savings, but has yet to deliver on them.
On Thursday, White House officials spent the morning racing to sort out the logistics required to make good on this latest unprecedented promise, one official said.
But a subsequent fact sheet released by the White House indicated that those efforts remained a work in progress; it provided no details on how the government envisioned funding the payments or where the money would come from.
“The same leadership that shattered the old limits of what Washington thought possible is now prepared to put $5,000 directly into Americans’ pockets,” the White House said, without providing specifics.
A White House official disputed the notion that Trump had caught his aides off guard, telling CNN that he had “discussed this idea with his senior staff in the lead up to the speech. There was no surprise.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Davis Ingle did not directly address the prospect of paying all American adults $5,000 if Republicans keep the House and Senate.
“The doomers and naysayers have consistently doubted President Trump,” he said. “With the continued support of the American people, President Trump will keep delivering real results.”
Trump’s surprise pledge comes as he struggles to combat rising voter frustration over the cost of living and his economic policies. For months, polling has shown Americans deeply dissatisfied with the president’s handling of inflation.
The ongoing war with Iran has only worsened the broader economic environment facing Republicans, sending gas and diesel prices soaring once again in recent weeks, with no clear end in sight. As the GOP gathered in Dallas this week, both the global and US benchmark prices for oil rose above the $100-per-barrel mark, and diesel hit a record $5.98 a gallon, on average, on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the affordability concerns, dismissing the term on Wednesday night as an issue ginned up by Democrats to damage him politically and insisting that that US is in the midst of a “the most successful two years financially and every other way.”
Yet in a tacit acknowledgment that economic woes are weighing on the GOP, the administration in recent weeks has increasingly sought to highlight steps aimed at lowering some everyday costs, like the price of ground beef and certain medicines.
Trump, who signed off on sending Americans two rounds of $1,200 stimulus checks during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, has repeatedly returned to the idea of sending cash directly to voters as a way to win political support.
Last year, he floated the prospect of $5,000 “DOGE dividends” tied to the supposed savings created by his slashing of the federal workforce. More recently, Trump vowed to send out $2,000 checks funded by tariff revenue. Neither have happened.
Trump’s latest proposal faces even longer odds — a reality that prompted many skeptics, including some Trump allies, to dismiss the idea as a purely political maneuver.
“For the record, I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin, but am strongly against bread and circus bribes,” Joe Lonsdale, a GOP donor close to Donald Trump Jr., wrote Wednesday night on X. Lonsdale co-hosted a major fundraiser on the sidelines of the convention Wednesday night with Trump Jr. and other high-profile Republicans, sources familiar with the event said.
Congressional Republicans would need to write and pass legislation authorizing the more than $1 trillion in payments – a sum that would equal more than half of the amount the government spent on all discretionary spending in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And while some lawmakers immediately backed the idea — Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio pledged to have a bill ready by November — the proposal surprised GOP leadership, who had not had any prior discussions about it, a person familiar with the matter said.
In a Fox News interview airing Thursday, Trump seemed to acknowledge that Congress would need to approve the proposal, blaming Democrats for standing in the way of his ability to follow through on the pledge sooner. But he then contradicted himself, saying in a CBS interview that while Republicans “will do it if we needed it,” he believed he could deliver the payments without congressional action.
The idea also hinges on the president’s party keeping control of the House and Senate — a midterm outcome that would defy polling trends and decades of political precedent.
“The danger he has is that the way it was rolled out, it will sound like a gimmick,” said former House GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich, who added that he’s previously talked to Trump about distributing money generated by tariffs, but was surprised Wednesday night’s announcement.
There are also myriad economic concerns that likely make such a proposal unlikely to become anything more than a political talking point. Trump’s proposal would blow a $1.2 trillion hole in the federal budget, which is already contending with a swiftly-rising debt level, according to at least two estimates.
Tariffs wouldn’t come close to covering the tab. New tariffs in 2027 would only raise enough revenue to pay for about one-tenth of the cost, according to the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank.
“A deficit-financed dividend payment of this scale would signal to markets that the US is not serious about getting its fiscal house in order,” Erica York, a senior economist at the foundation, said in a statement. “It would risk further rises in interest rates, add to inflationary pressures, and worsen the very problems that are trying to be ‘solved’ by the proposal.”
Another federal budget watchdog group called the idea “fiscally dangerous, economically backwards, and fundamentally unserious.”
“This half-baked political scheme would make this all worse – exploding the deficit, ginning up inflation, and further driving up the cost of borrowing throughout the economy,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement.
Trump’s proposal comes as the United States is digging itself into an ever-deeper debt hole. The federal debt hit a record $40 trillion in mid-August, an inauspicious milestone that will have consequences for Americans, businesses and the government for years to come.
Even without the dividend checks, the federal government is forecast to run a budget deficit of nearly $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2027, which starts October 1.
“It’s not an economic growth proposal,” said Moore, adding even if Republicans had the money to spend, it’d be better invested elsewhere. “With that amount of money you could cut the payroll tax by one or two percentage points, you could cut income tax by two to three points. That would actually provide an economic incentive.”
CNN’s Steve Contorno contributed to this report.