Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week insisted that President Donald Trump's promised $5,000 dividend checks to U.S. citizens would not use taxpayer money.

Trump made the promise during the Republican midterm convention, saying that U.S. citizens would receive the payments only if Republicans won both chambers of Congress in the midterms. Lutnick, for his part, suggested that the government would raise the money through administrative fees.

“Together we’re going to deliver that plan and we’re going to pay that money to the Americans, and not from taxpayer money,” he told NBC News. 

He went on to point to the Trump Platinum Card, a planned system that would implement $15,000 processing fees on would-be immigrants who also would pay $5 million to the U.S. government.

But Lutnick may not need to follow through on Trump's promises, given currently polling suggests the Democrats are favored to at least take the House of Representatives.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.