GOP rep: Priority ‘needs to be the military,’ not $5K checks

GOP Rep. Mike Flood (Neb.) said Sunday he supports providing the Pentagon with more funding amid the Iran war over passing legislation to implement President Trump’s $5,000 dividend proposal .

“First thing, I think we need to see the proposal, but the priority, in my opinion right now, should be funding our troops and replenishing our munitions before we do anything,” Flood told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”

Trump on Wednesday pledged to provide every American adult with $5,000 if Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate in November. There are roughly 270 million adults in the U.S.

The president has previously promised to provide Americans with tariff rebate checks, and his administration reallocated funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to give U.S. service members a $1,776 dividend last holiday season.

“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,” Trump said at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas.

Multiple GOP lawmakers have pushed back on the proposal , saying it would lead to inflation . Former Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) called the idea a “ socialist vote-buying scheme ” on Thursday.

But Flood, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, took a different tact. The Nebraska Republican said Trump promising to send American adults a $5,000 dividend is “no different than promising tax cuts,” which the GOP implemented last year in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“If that also gets the economy to where we need it to go and increases our growth, our GDP [gross domestic product], then let’s look at it. I think the priority needs to be the military,” Flood told Stirewalt, referring to the impacts of the president’s dividend.

The Trump administration sought $67.1 billion in additional defense funding from Congress earlier this summer, a request that included $17.3 billion in operational costs and $21 billion for munitions.

Since the administration asked for the funding, the Iran war has marched on into its seventh month — further depleting the Pentagon’s stockpiles of missile interceptors.