New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of attempting to buy votes ahead of the November midterms with a proposed $5,000 “Trump Dividend,” arguing the president has no credibility to make such a promise while still refusing to repay New York $13.5 billion in tariff revenue a federal court has already ruled was collected illegally.
Hochul’s remarks came in a post on X, published at 10:01 a.m. on September 10, 2026, directly responding to Trump’s dividend proposal unveiled two nights earlier at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas.
The Governor’s Full Statement
Hochul’s post read in its entirety:
“Trump owes New Yorkers $13.5 billion for his illegal tariffs and hasn’t paid up.
Now he’s dangling $5,000 checks if Republicans win Congress.
A trillion-dollar campaign bribe from a guy who doesn’t pay his bills.
Fool me once…”
What Trump Promised in Dallas
Trump told supporters at the Republican Midterm Convention on Wednesday night that every adult American citizen would receive a $5,000 payment if Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress in November. “If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.” He compared the payout to a corporation distributing profits to shareholders, pointing to what he described as the country’s economic strength.
Trump also told the crowd the money would come with a condition. “The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we’re making must be spent in the United States of America,” he said, adding, “We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money. We don’t want you going to China to Germany.”
A Proposal Without a Funding Source
Within an hour of Trump’s speech, Vice President JD Vance appeared to scale back the pledge, suggesting the payments would not go to wealthy Americans and floating tariff revenue as a possible funding mechanism. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the federal government has collected roughly $167 billion in tariff revenue for the current fiscal year, far short of the more than $1 trillion price tag attached to sending $5,000 to each of the nation’s estimated 240 million adult citizens.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on how the payments would be structured or financed.
Budget Watchdogs Push Back
Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Trump lacks authority to distribute the payments without congressional approval and disputed the “dividend” framing entirely, noting the federal government is running roughly $2 trillion in annual deficits rather than a surplus. “The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,” Goldwein said. “We don’t have surpluses to give away.”
The national debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time last month, and CBO projections show the federal government spending roughly $2.1 trillion more than it collects in revenue during the current fiscal year.
Hochul’s Long-Running Fight Over New York’s Tariff Refund
Hochul’s Thursday post extended a dispute she has pressed publicly for months. Following a Supreme Court ruling that found tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful, Hochul sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding the federal government refund the estimated $13.5 billion in tariff costs passed on to New York households and businesses. “Millions of New Yorkers are owed a refund for the real and widespread consequences of President Trump’s reckless and illegal tariff policy,” Hochul wrote. “Compensation is owed to the people of New York, and New Yorkers look forward to receiving our payout in full.”
Citing estimates from the Budget Lab at Yale, Hochul’s office has said the average New York household absorbed roughly $1,751 in added costs due to the tariffs, with the statewide impact totaling an estimated $13.5 billion. In April, after the federal government began accepting refund applications from businesses, Hochul noted that individual households had still not been made whole. “They still owe New York families $1,700,” she said.
A Pattern of Dividend Promises
Thursday’s dividend pledge was not Trump’s first. In November 2025, he proposed a $2,000 tariff-funded dividend that he said would exclude wealthy Americans, though no follow-up legislation materialized. In December 2025, roughly 1.45 million military service members received a one-time $1,776 “warrior dividend” using funds already appropriated by Congress. On Thursday, the White House also said nearly 1 million Americans would receive $500 payments tied to what it described as excess Affordable Care Act insurance fees.
Congressional Hurdles Ahead
Any dividend payment would require congressional approval, since spending authority rests with Congress under the Constitution. Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers, and Democrats would be expected to oppose the measure, potentially blocking it in the Senate absent a party-line budget maneuver. Lawmakers have only limited time to act, with the House scheduled to be in session for just one week before the November 3 election.
Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio embraced the proposal following Trump’s speech, writing on X, “I will get a bill ready so that we can get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election. Because Republicans (and America) will win!”
The White House Defense
The White House framed the proposal as a reward for economic performance under Trump’s leadership. “Because we’ve done so well, and because our country is making so much money, only I can make this promise to you, and here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate… I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said, according to the White House release. The administration compared the payout to a company “returning cash to its shareholders” and argued Democrats “will not deliver a dividend.”
Market and Economic Ripple Effects
Analysts have cautioned that a debt-financed payout of this scale could unsettle bond markets, driving up Treasury yields and government borrowing costs at a time when interest payments already exceed defense spending. Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds rose to 4.91% on Thursday as investors weighed the proposal’s implications.
Economists have also pointed to the inflationary effects of prior stimulus rounds, noting that pandemic-era direct payments both boosted consumer demand and contributed to subsequent price increases, alongside a documented rise in retail trading activity following each round of deposits.
The Political Backdrop
The dividend pledge arrives as Republicans brace for a difficult midterm cycle, with the party defending a narrow House majority and an increasingly competitive Senate map. Trump’s approval ratings have slipped, and polling has shown broad public opposition to the ongoing war in Iran, compounding headwinds for Republican candidates heading into November.
Hochul, who is herself up for reelection this year, has made the unpaid tariff refund a recurring theme in her public criticism of the administration, and her Thursday post placed that unresolved debt directly alongside Trump’s newest spending pledge — using the unpaid $13.5 billion as the basis for questioning whether the $5,000 dividend would ever materialize.