Defended or excused
Addressed record
Trump promised a $5,000 payment to each adult American citizen if Republicans retained both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms.
“Those penalties have generated a lot of revenues; they’ve helped us pay down debt.”
- Speaker capacity
- Vice president of the United States, quoted in CNN’s convention coverage
- Editorial rationale
- The reported response supplies an affirmative justification and rejects the idea that the proposal should be controversial. Its fiscal premises remain contested.