Treasury official can't explain how Trump would pay you $5K — but promises 'money starts to show up' if Republicans win

“I mean, I think there’s a little bit of, a little bit of we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” said David Zervos, counselor to the Treasury Secretary, in an interview with the National News Desk. “There’s a variety of different ways you can look at skinning that cat and coming up with funding.”

Zervos said he wasn’t worried about funding the checks. And maybe he shouldn’t be; the midterm’s results are far from certain, but things aren’t looking great for Republicans in the midterms.

But Trump has made an expensive promise, and his already low 30% approval rate could sink even lower if he doesn’t follow through.

Here’s what Zervos has to say — and why the majority of Americans aren’t holding their breath waiting for the payments.

Zervos’s math doesn’t quite add up

Zervos wasn’t able to give a specific plan to how the government would pay the checks off. But he did suggest it would take a few years.

“People have to recognize we are growing this economy this year, so far at 2.35% in the first half,” Zervos said to the National News Desk. “A percent on growth is a huge number.”

He says that 1% growth in the U.S. economy, which is worth around $32.5 trillion, gets you around $300 billion to $400 billion in extra revenue each year.

“Get that over a few years, the money starts to show up,” he said to the National News Desk.

It’s true that real GDP grew by 2.5% in Q1 2026 and 2.2% in Q2 2026. But the government doesn’t have access to the entire GDP. So far in 2026, the government has collected $4.85 trillion in revenue, which is around 15% of what the U.S.’ entire GDP is worth.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that there are around 245 million adult citizens in the U.S.. If each of them were to receive $5,000 in the mail, that would cost the U.S. government a little over $1.2 trillion.

That’s nearly a quarter of all the money the U.S. government has collected this year. It’s more than half of the current U.S. deficit of $2 trillion.

Zervos says the gesture is the most important thing. Americans aren’t believing it

Zervos says we shouldn’t be focusing on the planning anyway. It’s the thought that counts.

“Most importantly, I think the President has offered that up… to suggest that growth and economic strength and prosperity will be high enough under a sweep that we will be able to afford to send those things out,” he told the National News Desk.

Americans largely aren’t taking that suggestion to heart.

According to a poll by the Economist and YouGov, only 21% of Americans think Trump would follow through on his promise. 57% of respondents said he wouldn’t.