Trump’s $5,000 stimulus check promise faces a big question after Democrats take control of the House and Senate: Will Americans still get the tariff-funded payments?

For many Americans, the question after the midterm elections is not just who will control Congress. It is what happened to the $5,000 check Donald Trump promised them. The US president had tied the payment to one condition; Republicans had to keep control of both chambers. Democrats have now taken the Senate and are close to winning a majority in the House. That has left voters wondering whether the money is still coming.

Trump first made the promise on September 9 at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas. He repeated it in a November 2 video, saying every adult citizen would receive $5,000 if Republicans won.

The proposed payments were expected to come from tariff revenue, but no payment date was announced. With the election result going against his condition, the promise has come under fresh scrutiny.

Trump’s $5,000 checks in doubt after Democrats take Congress

Trump announced the plan at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on September 9. The offer was simple; if the GOP held both chambers, every adult citizen would get $5,000.

He repeated it just before Election Day. On November 2, he posted a video on X saying that if Republicans won, each person would have $5,000 in their pocket, along with economic success “like we have never ever seen before.”

The pledge was made in September, repeated on November 2, and the results came in on Tuesday, November 3.

Voters reacted on X almost at once. One person wrote, “Does this mean I don’t get my $5,000 check?” Another said, “Damn I had plans with that $5,000 check.” A third asked, “So the $5,000 check is up in smokes?”

Where the money was supposed to come from

The checks were expected to be paid for with tariff revenue. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, collected by the government. No payment date was ever announced.

Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin earlier told The U.S. Sun that the plan could have cost more than $1 trillion. That’s a thousand billion dollars. He warned the government would have had to find the money through borrowing or higher taxes.

It wasn’t the first time Trump had floated a payout. He had earlier suggested a $5,000 DOGE dividend and $2,000 tariff rebates. Neither led to nationwide payments.

Trump blames his absence from the ballot

Trump’s explanation for the losses is that he wasn’t running. He claimed Republicans would have won “IN A LANDSLIDE” if he had been on the ballot. He also said he doesn’t consider the result a defeat, because he “wasn’t on the ballot.”

He called Fox News to talk about the outcome and admitted he was surprised. “I was a little bit surprised,” he said. He had thought he could “transfer those people into candidates.”

He then described how he expects to deal with a Democratic Congress. A veto is a president’s power to reject a bill that Congress has passed, and Trump said he would use it on legislation he opposes. “They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” he said.

His prediction was that Democrats would come around after a couple of months of vetoes. “They’ll call and they’ll say, ‘How do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together.”

In a separate election-night interview with The New York Times, he said, “I am absolutely willing to accept those results.” He added that he had no regrets about endorsing Republican candidates, even with the party’s losses.

Some of those losses came in Texas. Democrat James Talarico beat Trump-backed Ken Paxton in a major Senate upset. Gina Hinojosa also ousted Republican Governor Greg Abbott.