Could President Trump issue DOGE stimulus checks? The idea of $5,000 refunds from the ongoing drive to reduce federal spending has been floated.

But don't add that bonus to your account just yet. That's because DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, ideally must meet its $2 trillion savings goal to make the kickback feasible. And that accomplishment is something even Elon Musk, the unofficial leader of DOGE, said may not be doable back in January.

Still, President Trump on Wednesday said the administration is considering giving 20% of "DOGE savings" to citizens. His comments came a day after Musk said he would confer with Trump about the idea.

Even if the idea of $5,000 stimulus checks evolves, Congress would need to approve a dispersal of funds to taxpayers. Here's what we know so far.

Where did the idea for $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks come from?

"Anti-woke" investor James Fishback, CEO and co-founder of Azoria Partners, suggested the idea on X on Feb. 14 and lobbied Musk on the idea of $5,000 checks – based on the $2 trillion in savings accrued from DOGE – leaving the rest to pay down the national debt.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

"American taxpayers deserve a ‘DOGE Dividend’: 20% the money that DOGE saves should be sent back to hard-working Americans as a tax refund check. It was their money in the first place," Fishback posted.

"@ElonMusk, let’s do this! This is how we rebuild trust in our government," he said.

In discussing the possible dividend on CNN on Saturday, Fishback said, the potential for a check of up to $5,000 would "incentivize Americans to report waste, fraud and abuse in their own community. Why? Because the more that DOGE saves, the bigger their check will be."

How would $5,000 stimulus checks happen? Who would get them?

Back in 2020, Congress passed – and President Trump signed – a $2 trillion bipartisan stimulus package to address the economic struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The package included $1,200 checks to qualifying individuals and $2,400 for most married couples filing jointly with an extra $500 for each qualifying child under age 17.

Those stimulus checks were sent to persons who had filed tax returns in the two previous years or received Social Security or veterans’ benefits.

Also included: funding for small business loans and grants, and additional weekly unemployment insurance payments.

Elon Musk's DOGE:GOP lawmakers get an earful over budget slashing

What has President Trump said about DOGE dividend checks?

Trump addressed the issue twice on Wednesday. "We're considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt," Trump said while speaking at the Saudi-sponsored FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami Beach on Wednesday.

Then, on Air Force One, when asked about the proposal, Trump said “I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we saving by going after the waste and fraud and abuse and all the other things that are happening,” Trump said, according to The Associated Press.

Trump also said the dividend would be "an incentive for the taxpayer to go out and report things to us where we can save money."

What has Elon Musk said about sending out $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks?

After Fishback floated of the DOGE dividend idea on X, Musk responded to Fishback's post, saying, "Will check with the President."

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. “The guy just says things,” she added, referring to Musk.

Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr., Greta Cross, Joey Garrison, Jessica Guynn, Nick Penzenstadler and James Powel.

Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X:mikegsnider  &  @mikegsnider.bsky.social  &  @mikesnider.

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day