Trump has now floated giving nearly $15,000 to Americans across 5 separate 'dividend' checks. Just 1 ever paid out

With the midterm elections nearing, President Trump is once again promising cash for Americans, but skeptics and even some of his backers are cautioning that this is a familiar tune that lacks any real substance.

"The $5,000 Trump Dividend, given to all Adults in the United States due to the fact that our Country is taking in Trillions of Dollars of Economic Development, Investment, and Pure SUCCESS, is being criticized by 'Dumocrats' who are hoping that it never happens — But it will!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on September 11. "When I say something, I mean it! The $5,000 Dividend will happen because the People of our Country deserve it."

Trump's pledge to give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterm elections certainly got headlines, but so have his other pledges to give away money. Most of those, however, have evaporated over time. Over the course of his administration, just one drive to send money to Americans has proven successful.

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Trump has managed to get approval to send checks to American people just one time, at the end of his first term during the pandemic. The CARES Act , signed in March of 2020, resulted in checks of $1,200 to eligible adults and $500 per child. That December, Trump signed a second round of $600 checks into law.

The cash was particularly welcomed by people who were out of work due to COVID-related job cuts, and even Trump's critics gave him high marks for pushing the checks through at the time.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has been dangling the possibility of even bigger checks to whip up excitement over his controversial decisions. But none have materialized so far — and many have just quietly been forgotten by the White House, it seems.

The first proposed plan was a DOGE dividend, which would have worked out to roughly $5,000 per household . That idea was originally proposed by James Fishback, CEO and co-founder of Azoria. He suggested a rebate that was funded by a 20% portion of the government savings DOGE was responsible for making. He calculated that if the organization achieved its $2 trillion savings target (a figure Elon Musk had already backed away from), that could work out to checks in the amount of $5,000 per household. Trump ran with the idea for a while.