President Donald Trump’s promise of a big payout for Americans if Republicans win the midterms is getting a rocky reception on Capitol Hill.

Several Republicans outright oppose the $5,000 check promise, while others offered tacit support in comments to Fox News Digital but hesitated on whether it could actually be delivered. It’s a sign that the GOP will have an uphill fight to get the “Trump dividend” approved by Congress with the president and lawmakers divided over whether it even needs the legislative branch’s green light.

“I disagree with it. It’s pay-to-play,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. “You shouldn’t pay anybody to vote your conscience. Plus, where are you getting the money? I think we’re in debt $40 trillion.”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., whose powerful committee would likely play a major role in crafting the $5,000 stimulus if it did run through Congress, said he was “skeptical” it could be achieved.

TRUMP FACES RECKONING AS GOP FIGURES LABEL $5K PROMISE A ‘SOCIALIST VOTE-BUYING SCHEME’

“Take a billion dollars. … I’d rather use it to either bolster defense or save Social Security. I think that’s a better use of the money. But, again, we have to see what we’re looking at. Right now, we don’t have a bill,” Cole told Fox News Digital.

TRUMP DANGLES $5,000 CHECKS AS DEBT SURGES — BUT ONLY IF GOP CAN CLEAR MAJOR MIDTERM HURDLE

He added more optimistically, “We just have an idea that we want to get money back to the American people. I like that.”

Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said he could support the idea if the sudden injection of cash wouldn’t send inflation rates soaring.

“But it ought to be limited — people that are working, people that are paying taxes. I don’t think we should just send paychecks out to everybody willy-nilly,” Rutherford told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, simply said, “The devil’s always in the details. I prefer to look at ways of getting people job opportunities.”

VOTERS HAVE A BLUNT MESSAGE FOR TRUMP ABOUT HIS IDEA TO DOLE OUT $5,000 CHECKS

Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., praised Trump’s candor but signaled he was not enthusiastic about a stimulus without guardrails.

“If we can structure tax incentives, if we can do some type of — whether it’s a cut, whether it’s a rebate, something in that vein, I think it’s probably a little better policy than mailing people a check just because they’re here,” Knott said.

But the idea did find support from others, like House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md.

“I think that hardworking Americans, probably taxpayers, deserve a tax rebate. We’re going to have to discuss how large a rebate that’ll be,” Harris told Fox News Digital, suggesting the $5,000 figure should be up for negotiation. “That’s a good idea.”

He added that it should go through Congress, potentially through the same mechanism that Republicans used to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

“It would probably have to go through reconciliation,” he said.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, suggested the money could come from what the federal government recovers in efforts to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

“Why don’t we continue the president’s approach towards fraud and give a dividend to the people of this great country who that money was stolen from?” Pfluger suggested, arguing that hundreds of billions of dollars were lost to fraud in the last administration.

Giving $5,000 to every American adult could cost at least $1 trillion by some estimates, a significant portion of the U.S. annual budget. A price tag that big historically would be subject to congressional approval, but the president may disagree.

“I think they will do it if we needed it, but I think not,” Trump told CBS News when asked if Congress would need to approve the stimulus.

But Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier this week, “I would assume, yes, he’d need Congress to act.”

The mastermind behind the multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that even victimized NFL star Travis Kelce is an illegal immigrant from India.

Thirty-eight-year-old Siddharth Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years in prison this week for running a $35 million investment wire fraud scheme. At his sentencing, Judge Zachary Bluestone said that through his investment company, Swiftarc Capital LLC, Jawahar “weaponized” investors’ trust, resulting in “massive” losses for the victims.

Jawahar raised more than $35 million from investors between 2016 and 2023 and only invested roughly $10 million of that total. He spent the remainder funding personal luxuries, including private jet charters, upscale apartments in Austin and New York, high-end dining, shopping sprees at clothing stores and exclusive private club memberships. He has now been ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution to his victims.

But that is not the end of Jawahar’s legal issues. He may also be subject to deportation. According to the Department of Justice and a court document reviewed by Fox News Digital, Jawahar is an illegal immigrant from India who has been living in the U.S. since 2005.

TRUMP ADMIN’S FRAUD CRACKDOWN TARGETS FOREIGNERS ACCUSED OF INFILTRATING US FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Further, the DOJ said that after his indictment on three counts of wire fraud and one count of investment-adviser fraud in 2023, Jawahar tried to obstruct justice by coaching a victim into giving a favorable statement to the FBI while lying about his immigration status and finances. He also tried to get his sister to remotely wipe his iPhone to hide evidence, the DOJ said.

Jawahar pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in January 2026.

Among Jawahar’s victims was Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end who recently married pop superstar Taylor Swift, and several NBA players, including Gary Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mason Plumlee. The DOJ said Jawahar’s victims resided in Missouri and elsewhere.

FORMER USCIS OFFICIAL, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED IN ALLEGED $960K CITIZENSHIP BRIBERY SCHEME

Instead of managing a diversified portfolio for his investors, Jawahar allocated roughly 99% of client capital into a single stock, Philip Morris Pakistan. As that position tanked, Jawahar hid the losses, issued falsified statements and used funds from new investors to pay out earlier clients.

Jawahar also managed 17 additional entities that he utilized during his scheme.

ALLEGED CRYPTOSCAM RINGLEADER SET FOR PLEA HEARING IN $240M BITCOIN THEFT

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

In an X post, Colin McDonald, an assistant attorney in the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, celebrated Jawahar’s sentencing, calling him an “illegal alien fraudster.”

He congratulated the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and partners for their “great work” on the case.

EXCLUSIVE: Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico, who has repeatedly accused his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, of corruption, is now facing Republican accusations of “blatant corruption” over consulting work he performed for a progressive firm while serving on the Texas House’s influential Public Education Committee. Talarico’s campaign has denied the allegation as a “lie.”

The Lone Star State’s Senate race is entering its final stretch, with Talarico leading Paxton in recent polling. A Republican loss could damage the GOP’s chances of retaining its Senate majority.

Paxton has projected confidence that, after emerging from a particularly bitter primary race, Texans will respond to his campaign once they hear his message. Talarico, meanwhile, has continued targeting Paxton through major ad buys, including one in which the Democrat calls him “the most corrupt politician in Texas.”

Republicans are now responding with allegations of their own, characterizing Talarico’s past arrangement with the consulting firm as a “textbook pay-to-play scheme.”

SHOCK POLL: TALARICO TIES PAXTON IN TEXAS SENATE RACE, THREATENING GOP STRONGHOLD

They are pointing to paychecks Talarico received from a firm called MAYA Consulting that simultaneously drew in millions in state contracts awarded by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which he helped provide oversight to as a member of the Public Education Committee.

Talarico announced he was joining MAYA Consulting in a 2019 Facebook post. In the post, he stated that as a consultant he would be “working with districts, nonprofits, and communities to build excellent and equitable educational opportunities for all our students.”

According to a Senate campaign financial disclosure filed in 2025, Talarico worked with MAYA Consulting, which has since been rebranded as VIDA Collaborative, from 2019 until 2025.

During those same years, official legislative records show that Talarico served as a voting member of the Texas House’s Public Education Committee from 2019 to 2025. Among its responsibilities, the committee oversees the Texas Education Agency, which awards government contracts to firms for services, including then-MAYA Consulting.

TED CRUZ, CONSERVATIVES RESPOND AFTER TALARICO CRITICIZES BIBLE-RELATED EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS AS ‘PROPAGANDA’

TEA registers from 2021 and 2022 show that the agency awarded MAYA two contracts worth $3.578 million and $1.635 million, respectively. The contracts were related to priorities Talarico was pushing in the Texas House at the time, including addressing learning loss due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Talarico’s disclosure shows that he earned $83,333.40 from the nonprofit in 2025, in addition to his $13,904.92 part-time salary as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Kassi Longoria, CEO of VIDA Collaborative, confirmed with Fox News Digital that Talarico served as an “independent contractor consultant” with the group from 2019 to 2025. She said that Talarico “has no current role with our organization” and clarified that “during his time at VIDA, his consulting work was structured, specifically to remain separate from his role as a Texas state legislator.”

She said that Talarico “never worked under, received compensation from, or was involved in securing any state- or federally-funded contracts.” She noted that “as a matter of standard practice, VIDA discloses any outside employment or potential conflicts of interest for our staff — including Rep. Talarico’s legislative role — in our proposals when we apply for publicly-funded opportunities” and that “similarly, Rep. Talarico’s relationship with VIDA was disclosed in his required public financial disclosure filings.”

However, Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft accused Talarico of wrongdoing, calling the Democrat’s involvement with MAYA an example of “blatant corruption.”

TEXAS DEM CANDIDATE TO HOLD HIGH-DOLLAR HOLLYWOOD FUNDRAISER WHILE GOP GATHERS IN DALLAS: ‘FAKE COWBOY’

“We are looking at a textbook pay-to-play scheme with James Talarico steering millions in taxpayer funds to his DEI consulting agency under the condition he gets commission through a scam no-show job,” Kraft told Fox News Digital.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

As a member of the Texas House’s Public Education Committee, Talarico was not involved in TEA’s process for awarding outside contracts and did not vote on the contracts. Fox News Digital is also not aware of any evidence that Talarico received a commission for contracts awarded to MAYA, a claim that both the organization and Talarico’s campaign denied.

Kraft alleged that Talarico is “one of the most morally bankrupt individuals to ever run for public office in Texas.”

JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign, pushed back, saying, “This is a lie.”

Ennis said that “James’ relationship to MAYA was fully disclosed in compliance with Texas House rules” and that “James had no involvement in MAYA Consulting securing any public contracts and his contract with MAYA barred him from representing MAYA before the Texas Legislature or education agencies.”

“Ken Paxton is making up lies about James to distract from the fact that he’s been impeached by his own party for bribery, reported to the FBI by his own staff, and indicted for investment fraud for scamming his own friends,” Ennis alleged, while adding, “Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas, and this November, Republicans, Democrats, and independents will come together to reject Ken Paxton’s corruption and stand up to this broken, corrupt political system.”

In July 2015, Paxton was indicted on charges that he misled and defrauded tech startup investors and failed to disclose that the startup was paying him to promote its stock. Prosecutors agreed in 2024 to drop the charges under a deal requiring Paxton to pay about $271,000 in restitution, perform 100 hours of community service and complete 15 hours of legal ethics courses. Paxton did not enter a plea under the agreement and was never convicted.

Meanwhile, Madison Cercy, a spokeswoman for Paxton’s campaign, told Fox News Digital, “It couldn’t be clearer: James Talarico sees Texans tax dollars as his own personal slush fund.”

Fox News Digital is not aware of any evidence that Talarico has misused tax dollars.

Cercy called Talarico a “taxpayer-funded DEI consultant whose employer receives millions of dollars from Texans while pushing radical ideology in our schools.”

Americans may not feel it in their wallets, but two major measures of economic well-being improved in 2025, as the nation’s poverty rate fell to a historic low and inflation-adjusted median household income reached a record high, according to new Census Bureau data.

In 2025, the poverty rate in the United States dropped to an all-time low of 10.2%, down roughly half a point from 2024, according to the Census Bureau. Even as the proportion of people living in undesirable conditions declines, however, the percentage of people who told Fox News pollsters that their personal financial situation was worsening or not changing held steady at around 85% for the duration of 2025.

Many have attributed President Donald Trump’s unpopularity, which some conservatives fear could cost the GOP control of Congress in November, to his economic policies. Amid Republican unpopularity and consumer pessimism, even states that are usually reliably conservative, like Texas, Ohio and Alaska, could very well send Democrats to the Senate.

FOX NEWS POLL: MOST RATE THE ECONOMY NEGATIVELY, INCLUDING HALF OF REPUBLICANS

The Census Bureau defines poverty depending on the number of people in a given household and their income. A family with two adults and two children, for instance, would need to make less than $32,649 a year to be considered impoverished. The threshold for poverty increases as inflation lowers the value of the dollar.

Median household income also reached an all-time high, growing by 2.6% to $87,460 in 2025. That gain, however, is erased by inflation as the dollar’s value declined by about 3% between 2024 and 2025.

A number of factors could explain the gap between economic perception and improving macroeconomic indicators.

“See a lot of mutuals on here in DC, New York, LA talking about high prices. Meanwhile folks I know in Alabama, Indiana, Georgia getting new jobs, raises, or expanding and growing,” Andrew Beck, a partner at the consulting firm Beck and Stone, wrote on X. “Doesn’t help young folks in the blue states, but the South is booming.”

THE RED STATES CHARGING AHEAD WITH AMERICA’S WEALTH AS RIVALS WATCH BILLIONS SLIP AWAY

Economic growth in Southern states has consistently outpaced the United States at large, spurred by internal migration and friendly business environments incentivizing large enterprises to move south.

High gas prices, sparked by the president’s military operations in the Middle East, and price increases attributable to tariffs have also proven unpopular, hurting the president’s approval ratings even as poverty rates dip and incomes climb. Roughly two-thirds of voters in a recent Fox News poll said that they believe the Trump administration is making the economy worse.

THE OVERLOOKED WAY THE IRAN WAR IS MAKING GROCERIES, AMAZON PACKAGES AND NEW HOMES MORE EXPENSIVE

Conservatives on social media have used the Census Bureau’s data to take a victory lap.

“Poverty is bad. Every American should celebrate poverty rates are now the lowest on record. Good job everyone,” Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., wrote on X. “Keep it going.”

“Good news we can all celebrate,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a critic of the president, posted.

The number of people without health insurance also remained near historic lows, according to the Census Bureau.

Some on the left, however, deny that poverty rates are actually declining.

“Our elites terrorize the entire world while ordinary Americans continue to foot the bill. We spent trillions ‘fighting’ the terror we created to provide cover for our oil barons stealing 3rd World resources,” Twitch streamer Hasan Piker wrote on X Thursday. “It only amounted to more death overseas, more poverty at home. All while the [military industrial complex] ballooned. No houses, no hospitals, no schools-just a growing crisis of homelessness, underemployment and diseases of despair in the wealthiest country on earth.”

Even as Americans have gotten wealthier over the past few decades, the price of housing has significantly outpaced wage growth. With personal homeownership holding strong cultural importance to Americans, rising home costs fuel pessimism in ways that improvements in other areas can’t necessarily offset.