Internet Drags Vance for Trying to ‘Sanewash’ Trump’s $5K Dividend Midterm Pledge: ‘How Scammers Talk’

Vice President JD Vance’s attempt to add some economic meat to President Donald Trump’s eye-popping promise of $5,000 checks to every American citizen if Republicans win the midterms was met with a rough online reception.

Vance was pressed by Fox News anchor Bret Baier over Trump’s pledge, made during his speech at the GOP midterm convention in Texas on Wednesday night, to pay a $5,000 “dividend” to Americans if voters keep Republicans in control of Congress in November, a proposal Baier noted could carry a price tag of roughly $1.3 trillion.

The pitch immediately drew skepticism online, however, where critics accused Vance of trying to “sanewash” what they viewed as a naked electoral inducement. At the same time, conservatives asked aloud whether the numbers behind the promise could work at all.

Baier put that criticism directly to Vance, telling him: “I can hear the critics’ heads exploding. They’re saying out loud, I guarantee you, ‘The president is bribing voters to vote for Republicans to take over the House, and then he’s bankrupting the country because the deficit and debt is huge and inflation would come back if this comes into play.’ So how do you answer those criticisms?”

Vance responded by recasting Trump’s proposal as something narrower: “Well, I say first of all, what the president’s talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue because the president of the United States is actually standing up to both foreign companies, but also foreign countries who’ve been taking advantage of America’s workers for pretty much my entire life.”

He argued that Trump’s tariffs were producing substantial government revenue and helping reduce debt before explaining the political bargain at the center of Trump’s pitch.

“What the president’s just saying is, ‘If you keep it going to the American people, if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you’re going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that, that we’re, we’re creating in the United States of America.’ I don’t think it’s a controversial idea,” Vance said.

That explanation did little to extinguish the backlash, a clip of Vance’s comments quickly went viral online and became easy fodder for critics:

Others, like NBC News journalist Garrett Haake and Brookings Institution think tank fellow Jessica Riedl, disputed whether the pledge was even possible to uphold, especially with tariff income:

Even some conservatives felt unconvinced by Vance’s explainer:

Trump has previously floated tariff-funded payments of at least $2,000 to working Americans. Those checks have yet to materialize.

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