{"id":223917,"date":"2026-09-12T12:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lutnick-says-trumps-5000-checks-for-americans-wouldnt-rely-on-taxpayer-funds-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T12:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:26:25","slug":"lutnick-says-trumps-5000-checks-for-americans-wouldnt-rely-on-taxpayer-funds-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lutnick-says-trumps-5000-checks-for-americans-wouldnt-rely-on-taxpayer-funds-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Lutnick says Trump\u2019s $5,000 checks for Americans wouldn\u2019t rely on taxpayer funds – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump\u2019s promised $5,000 \u201cdividend\u201d for all U.S. adults would not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday.
\u201cIt\u2019s not tax money,\u201d Lutnick told NBC News in a wide-ranging interview at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, where he discussed the attacks and a variety of economic issues.
He claimed that the administration could \u201cearn the money that Donald Trump wants to pay out, not from the deficit and not from taxpayers.\u201d
Trump this week pledged that if Republicans held control of the House and Senate in November\u2019s midterm elections, his administration would issue a \u201cdividend\u201d to all American adults as a reward.
\u201cTogether we\u2019re going to deliver that plan and we\u2019re going to pay that money to the Americans, and not from taxpayer money,\u201d Lutnick said.
He referenced the Trump Platinum Card, an upcoming Commerce Department program allowing wealthy individuals to sign up to pay $5 million in order to extend their U.S. visas for an additional 270 days.
\u201cWe have a waitlist of more than 100,000 people who want to come,\u201d Lutnick said. \u201cThat\u2019s $500 billion.\u201d
Lutnick also cited an investment in Intel the administration made last year<\/a>. \u201cEverybody knows we got just about 500 million shares, and the stock was $20, and now it\u2019s $100, so we\u2019re up $50 billion,\u201d he said.
The administration spent $8.9 billion from appropriated CHIPS Act funds to make the investment in Intel. While the stock has appreciated from the government\u2019s purchase price of $20.47 to $100.32 as of Thursday, the administration has not sold those shares \u2014 meaning the gain is merely on paper.
Other Trump administration officials have offered different explanations for where the promised $5,000 checks would come from.
On Friday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Bloomberg Television that the White House was considering a \u201creconciliation process\u201d in Congress to fund the promised checks. Initial estimates put the cost of such a plan at around $1.3 trillion<\/a>.
Vice President JD Vance suggested Wednesday that the promised payments could come from U.S. tariff revenues<\/a>. But even before the Supreme Court ordered hundreds of billions in tariff revenues to be refunded, they would not have come close to covering this cost, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation<\/a>.
The distinction is largely one of accounting. Every dollar sent out in checks is a dollar the government cannot use to pay down debt, fund programs or reduce taxes.
Trump announced the \u201cdividend\u201d idea just weeks after the U.S. national debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time. The government\u2019s budget deficit, the annual shortfall between revenues and spending, is nearing $1.8 trillion, its highest since March 2021<\/a>.
Lutnick said the administration planned to pay down the national debt through the pursuit of \u201cwaste, fraud and abuse.\u201d But economists widely believe this will not make a dent.
Polling shows Americans are frustrated with the administration\u2019s economic policies, a worrisome sign for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.
The president\u2019s approval rating for his handling of the economy was just 32% in a recent Associated Press poll<\/a>.
An NBC News poll<\/a> released in April found 52% of Americans said they strongly disapproved of the way Trump is handling inflation and the cost of living.
Lutnick said he\u2019d give the U.S. economy a high letter grade.
\u201cI think it\u2019s an A-minus,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we get oil to $2 a barrel, it\u2019s an A-plus, and the only way to do it is to pound away at opening the spigots of oil in the world.\u201d
\u201cIf you break Venezuela and have them produce the gas that they used to produce \u2014\u00a03, 4 million barrels a day \u2014 and you break Iran\u2019s control on the Middle East and let that oil flow, you\u2019re going to have $2 gas for the rest of your life and the rest of our kids\u2019 lives,\u201d Lutnick said.
\u201cThat\u2019s what President Trump is attacking,\u201d he added. \u201cHe is saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to make a generational change in America. I\u2019m going to drive the price of gas to $2 forever.\u2019\u201d
The average price of regular gas Friday was more than double that, at $4.29 per gallon<\/a>. In parts of California, gas hit $10.
On Friday, the U.S. consumer price index for August showed inflation overall rose 0.4% from July. However, core inflation emerged as a potential problem. That reading, which excludes food and energy prices, rose more than economists had expected.
This could indicate that inflation from ongoing trade wars and the Iran and Ukraine conflicts could be spilling over into other price categories.
Steve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.
Kayla Steinberg is a producer at NBC News covering business and the economy.
Christine Romans is the chief business correspondent at NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump\u2019s promised $5,000 \u201cdividend\u201d for all U.S. adults would not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday.\u201cIt\u2019s not tax money,\u201d Lutnick told NBC News in a wide-ranging interview at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, where he discussed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}