Trump pledges $5,000 to every American if Republicans win November elections

US President Donald Trump notes he will offer every adult American a $5, 000 (£3, 700) payout if Republicans win both chambers of Congress in November's midterm elections – a plan that would cost more than a trillion dollars.

Key points

• For instance, Democrats in Georgia promised $2, 000 relief payments if their party took control of the Senate at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• It means a $5, 000 payout would cost the US administration some $1.3 trillion.
• It is not the first time that Trump promised such payouts – he has previously proposed $2, 000 cheques to be funded by tariff revenues.
• The blockage has caused fluctuation in oil rates worldwide and Trump has faced pressure from his party to end the war.
• Democrats rapidly labelled it an "empty promise" and others questioned whether such a pledge was legal.

In practice, the controversial offer was created in a speech at the party's first-ever convention in the middle of a US presidential term.

He offered no details on how the plan would work or where the capital would come from – saying only that the funds would have to be spent in the US.

There are almost 270 million American adults. It means a $5, 000 payout would cost the US administration some $1.3 trillion.

Questions regarding whether his plan was feasible have began to be asked – especially as costs rise in the US – partially since of the consequences of the war that the US and Israel kicked off with Iran in February.

Iran's retaliation has included attacks against US bases and allies in the Gulf – but crucially it has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz where regarding a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas employed to transit.

For context, the blockage has caused fluctuation in oil rates worldwide and Trump has faced pressure from his party to end the war.

On Wednesday, the US president cautioned his supporters that the war would not end until after the midterms and that oil costs would not come down until then.

He created the comments ahead of his speech in Texas, repeating it at the convention where he argued that short-term economic pain was worth it to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

Trump's long speech at the Republican convention in Dallas, Texas, touched at the core of the conflict – the impact on the Americans' standard of living and his pledge to growth their spending power drew raucous applause in the hall.

"If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, " Trump remarked, "I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5, 000."

"We don't want you going to Canada to spend the money, " he remarked.

"We don't want you going to China, to Germany. You obtained to spend the capital in the United States of America." It is not clear how the spending would be monitored.

Other US politicians previously have additionally promised economic rewards in return for electoral success.

In the US, Congress authorises spending and, in his speech in Dallas, the president did not say on whether he planned to ask for such approval for the payments – which he dubbed "Trump Dividends".

Nevertheless, along with the overall cost to the US treasury, the latest offer from the US president may raise legal questions. Federal laws prohibit payments that are intended to influence voting.

Nevertheless, some experts say Trump's promise may be seen as a pledge to cut taxes – which is legal – along with the free-speech protection guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Taken together, the developments around trump pledges $5, 000 to every American if Republicans win November elections point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.