Is it possible that President Trump could distribute DOGE stimulus checks? There’s talk of refunds up to $5,000 as part of efforts to reduce federal spending. However, it’s not a sure bet just yet. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) needs to achieve its $2 trillion savings target to make this proposal a reality. Even Elon Musk, the unofficial DOGE leader, has expressed doubts about accomplishing this goal. Nonetheless, President Trump recently mentioned the administration is contemplating giving 20% of “DOGE savings” to the public. This statement followed a discussion between Musk and Trump about the concept.
If the notion of $5,000 stimulus checks progresses, congressional approval would be required to allocate funds to taxpayers. Here’s what we currently know about this idea.
The origin of the $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks proposal can be traced back to James Fishback, an “anti-woke” investor and CEO of Azoria Partners. He suggested the idea on X and urged Musk to consider distributing $5,000 checks based on the $2 trillion in DOGE savings, with the remainder allocated to reducing the national debt. Fishback argued that American taxpayers should receive a “DOGE Dividend,” emphasizing that it was their money to begin with. He called for Musk’s support in rebuilding trust in the government.
Discussing the potential dividend on CNN, Fishback highlighted how a $5,000 check could incentivize Americans to report misuse of funds in their communities. The more DOGE saves, the larger the potential refund individuals could receive.
In response to these discussions, President Trump has mentioned the idea of providing 20% of DOGE savings to Americans as a form of dividend, with another 20% allocated to debt reduction. He sees this as a way to encourage taxpayers to identify areas where money can be saved.
Elon Musk has also weighed in on the topic, indicating he will explore the feasibility of implementing the DOGE dividend proposal.
Overall, the possibility of $5,000 stimulus checks tied to DOGE savings remains an intriguing concept that would require further deliberation and approval to come to fruition.
“What has House Speaker Mike Johnson said about DOGE dividend checks? Speaker of the House Mike Johnson did not seem to be on board with the DOGE dividend proposal when he spoke Thursday at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference. He rolled his eyes and said, ‘Politically, that would be great for us, you know, because everybody gets a check,’ Johnson said. ‘But if you think about our core principles, right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That’s our brand and we have a $36 trillion federal debt. We have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?’ What do economists say about $5,000 stimulus checks? Most who have spoken out so far don’t think a DOGE dividend would be a good idea. ‘It would increase the deficit, it would increase immediate consumer spending, and that would have inflationary consequences which is something we don’t want right now,’ Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, told Scripps News. The money would be better off spent going to offset the $1 trillion annual budget deficit and to offset taxes, Glock said. Another problem with stimulus checks: inflation. If DOGE starts ‘mailing out large checks to large numbers of people, wow, that’s going to put a big boost to inflation because Trump’s putting out tariffs and tariff means more expensive goods and services,’ Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, told CBS News. But Kevin Hassett, Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, said Thursday during a press briefing that the checks wouldn’t be inflationary because the government had already planned to spend the money. ‘If we don’t spend government money and we give it back to the people, if they spend it all, then you’re even,’ he said, according to financial news site Investopedia. ‘But they’re probably going to save a lot of it, in which case you’re reducing inflation.’ The issue may be moot because DOGE is unlikely to be able to reach its goal of $2 trillion in savings, Zagorsky said. ‘I’m just not sure the savings are there,’ he said. Last week, Musk said DOGE had already saved taxpayers $55 billion, but an error – listing the cancellation of an $8 million contract as being an $8 billion savings – suggested it had actually totaled savings of about $16.5 billion. DOGE won’t achieve enough savings to issue checks ‘big enough’ to create inflation, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told The Associated Press. She called the idea of a DOGE dividend ‘ridiculous.’ ‘There’s no money there, and certainly not enough money to make a big contribution to taxpayers,’ said Kamarck, who worked with Vice President Al Gore to cut government waste in the Clinton administration.
