A Fox News star cornered Vice President JD Vance on President Donald Trump’s wild cash bribe plans live on air.
Bret Baier, who had a nasty run-in with the president last month, risked the cranky 80-year-old’s ire once more as he dared to grill his understudy on a controversial promise to pay a $5,000 “dividend” to every adult American if the GOP retains its control of both chambers of Congress after the midterm elections.
The MAGA network had a panel set up on the sidelines of the president’s me-me-me Trump-a-palooza event in Texas, where Vance, 42, sat for what was hardly the usual softball Fox News interview.
Baier said Trump’s pledge “raised some eyebrows,” putting the cost in the region of $1.3 trillion. Handing Vance a grenade of a question, he went on, “I can hear the critics’ heads exploding. They’re saying out loud, I guarantee you, ‘the president is bribing voters to vote for Republicans to take over the House, and then he’s bankrupting the country because the deficit and debt is huge and inflation would come back if this comes into play.’ So how do you answer those criticisms?”
Vance managed to somehow spin it and blame foreign companies and foreign governments. He also suggested the “dividend” would be paid to American workers, not every adult.
“Well, I say first of all, what the president’s talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue because the president of the United States is actually standing up to both foreign companies, but also foreign countries who’ve been taking advantage of America’s workers for pretty much my entire life,” he attempted to explain.
He explained to Baier what a tariff is and claimed that U.S. levies on foreign goods have generated vast revenue and have “helped us pay down debt.”
He did not explain that a dividend is a payment from accrued profit and that the U.S. is more than $40 trillion in debt.
“What the president’s just saying is, ‘If you keep it going to the American people, if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you’re going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that, that we’re, we’re creating in the United States of America.’ I, I don’t think it’s a controversial idea,” he concluded.
Trump’s $5,000 “dividend” immediately raised eyebrows, with many viewing it as a blatant bribe to voters. Trump insisted the only condition was that the money be spent in America. According to the census, there are 269 million adults in the U.S., which means such a promise could cost about $1.35 trillion. The White House is yet to explain how it will fund the initiative.
Trump has repeatedly backed a plan to give working-class American families at least $2,000 per person from tariff revenue. He first floated the idea in a series of Truth Social posts in November 2025. However, these payments have yet to materialize.
Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pointed this out during coverage of the Republican midterm convention. “We should note, though, it is not the first time he has promised a cash payment like this. He promised Americans $2,000 rebates during his tariff policy, when that was enacted, but after court challenges to the tariffs themselves, those $2,000 checks, so far, have not materialized.”
Baier, meanwhile, earned a rebuke from the president last month after one of his reporters reported accurately about the failing Iran war.
During an episode of Special Report, the program’s chief correspondent, Jonathan Hunt, described how there had been “no significant developments” between the U.S. and Iran to end the now six-month conflict.
Trump freaked out, dragging Baier and Hunt in a Truth Social post where he called the latter a “flunky.” Baier responded on air. “First of all, Jonathan Hunt is not a flunky. He’s a great reporter,” Baier said, going on to set the president straight on the details of his report.
Baier remained in Trump’s good books, however, and was spotted playing golf with the president this weekend.
