President Donald Trump is urging Americans to treat the 2026 midterms as if his own name were on the ballot and repeated his pledge to send $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans keep the House and the Senate.
Trump called the midterms “one of the most important elections of our lives” and told supporters to vote early or by mail.
“In this election, I’m asking you to pretend I’m on the ballot. Whenever I’m on the ballot, we get 45% more votes. So I’m not on the ballot, but pretend I am because this is a big deal,” Trump said in a Truth Social post early Saturday morning.
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In another video clip, he once again promised a financial reward for Republicans keeping control.
“Only I can make you this promise. If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, I’m going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000,” Trump said.
“We’re taking in massive amounts of money through tariffs and record economic success, but Democrat policies won’t allow this to happen. In fact, the opposite is going to take place. They’re gonna raise your taxes, and they’re gonna destroy our country and certainly destroy our economy. It’ll be a 1929 disaster,” Trump added.
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Trump first made the $5,000 promise on September 9 at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, telling the crowd that economic success would let him issue a “Trump Dividend” to every adult citizen if Republicans retained both chambers.
The president compared it to a company distributing cash to shareholders.
Vice President JD Vance later suggested the payments could come from tariff revenue and would not go to wealthy Americans.
Trump has also said he does not want to issue the checks before the election.
Asked why he would not send them now, he said that if Democrats take control, “our country will be in shambles and they won’t be able to do it,” while a Republican Congress would be taking in “tremendous amounts of money,” according to a report from Mediaite.
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