TJ Madsen is among the founding members of the New Herald Tribune and chairs the editorial board. He worked for national syndicated newspapers in Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before moving to the midwest.
September 14 , 2026
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that the federal government could help finance his proposed $5,000 dividend checks for American adults by scaling back what he described as an ambitious Space Force program to build a fleet of interplanetary battleships, adding a new element to an increasingly contentious debate over how the payments would be funded.
The proposal came as Trump faced pushback from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said earlier Sunday that any legislation authorizing the payments would require congressional approval.
Trump has pledged to issue a $5,000 “dividend” to adult Americans if Republicans retain control of both the House and Senate in November. The plan would cost more than $1 trillion, depending on eligibility rules, and the president has argued that strong government revenues and tariff collections could help cover the expense.
“Some of that money is going into ships that are going to Mars and beyond,” Trump told reporters. “We don't need quite as many. We can build fewer ships and give the money back to the American people.”
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has stopped short of rejecting Trump's proposal but has emphasized that Congress must determine how it would be financed and authorized.
“Of course, the devil's in the details,” Johnson said Sunday when asked about the payments. “We have to figure all that out.”
Trump's latest suggestion appeared to underscore the broader disagreement within the Republican Party over the proposal. While some Republicans have embraced the dividend as a way to return government revenue to taxpayers, others have questioned how the government could finance payments potentially exceeding $1 trillion while also addressing the federal deficit.
Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican facing a competitive reelection campaign, said Sunday that his primary concern was determining how the payments would be funded.
“We have a $4 trillion debt,” Lawler said. “We have to be serious about tackling that.”
Democrats have also criticized the proposal, arguing that the payments would add substantially to federal borrowing and could contribute to inflation. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the plan unserious during a Sunday television appearance.
Trump has continued to defend the proposal, saying that Americans deserve to benefit directly from the economic policies of his administration. Vice President JD Vance has previously suggested that tariff revenues could be one source of funding, although current tariff collections are substantially below the amount that would be required for the payments.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the federal government is already running a deficit measured in trillions of dollars, adding to questions about whether tariff revenue or spending reductions could cover the proposed checks without additional borrowing.
The Space Force idea introduced another complication. Military and budget analysts said that even if Congress chose to reduce funding for future space-destroyers, the savings would depend on which programs were affected and over what period.
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