A prominent MAGA commentator has turned his fire on President Donald Trump's newest campaign promise, branding it welfare and "flagrant bribery."
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh unloaded Thursday on the $5,000 "Trump dividend," the payout Trump vowed at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas to send every adult American citizen, but only if Republicans keep both chambers of Congress in November.
"Spending over a trillion dollars to randomly send everyone in the country a check for five grand, including people who are not even net taxpayers -- which makes this, yes, welfare -- is idiotic," Walsh raged on X. "We did that during covid and it didn't help anything. Only made inflation worse. This is flagrant bribery."
Walsh, one of the right's most influential voices, saved special contempt for the timing, noting Republicans have run Washington for nearly two years and could have cut the checks at any point.
"Holding it as a carrot on the stick for after the election is just shameless," he wrote. The better way to help working Americans, he argued, is to let them keep more of their own money instead of mailing out checks.
Trump unveiled the "dividend" as his party sinks in the polls amid a ballooning affordability crisis. Economists estimate the one-time payout would cost between $1.2 trillion and $1.35 trillion, far more than the tariff revenue the administration has floated to cover it.