Supporters and critics weigh in on Trump's promise of $5,000 to Americans on GOP midterm win

President Donald Trump declared during his speech to the GOP midterm convention Wednesday that he would issue payments of $5,000 to every U.S. citizen if the Republicans win both chambers in the midterms.

While some expressed support for the idea, the promise gained some critics as well. Some of that criticism came from Trump allies.

James Lonsdale, a Republican donor and activist, said on X that, while he's a Trump supporter, the proposal doesn't sit right with him. 

"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," Lonsdale wrote. 

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who attended the convention and is seeking a second term, expressed support for the idea. 

“Comment how you will spend your $5,000 Trump Dividend when Republicans win in November,” Marshall wrote on X. 

Trump called the $5,000 checks "a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America." 

Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said that companies pay out dividends when there's a surplus, but the U.S. is running $2 trillion annual deficits, in addition to being $40 trillion in debt. 

Goldwein also pointed out that Trump will need to get congressional approval to deliver on the promise, the Associated Press reported. 

“The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable. We don’t have surpluses to give away," he told the Associated Press.