Wyoming Republican Party Vice-Chair Bob Ferguson was at the convention center in Dallas, Texas, when President Donald Trump made a controversial promise to give every American $5,000 if Republicans take both chambers of Congress in the general election.
And Ferguson said he believes the press and anyone construing this as a bribe has missed the larger context of Trump’s monthslong rhetoric on tariff dividend.
“That is an outright lie,” said Ferguson of bribery characterizations in a Thursday phone interview to Cowboy State Daily.
Cheers and microphonic bursts from the still-ongoing Republican National Committee mid-term convention – the first of its kind – resounded in the background.
“The dividend he’s talking about is from tariffs,” added Ferguson. “The point people are missing is, if Republicans don’t win, then Democrats aren’t going to approve that dividend.”
Ferguson said the bigger context has been Trump’s ongoing hopes of windfall from tariffs.
“He’s been talking about that for over a year; that’s actually nothing new,” said Ferguson. “His point was if the Democrats win in the next election, that dividend won’t get through to the American people.”
The Trump administration has imposed a series of tariffs on countries allied with and against the U.S. throughout much of his second term.
Trump promised $2,000 per person from tariff revenue in November 2025, and said America would use remaining tariffs to lower its debt. Those dividends have not materialized.
A payout of $5,000 to each American adult could cost the nation more than $1 trillion.
Backlash
Trump’s comments brought backlash from the media and public figures across the political spectrum.
Libertarian-leaning – and outgoing – Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie mocked the promise as a bribe.
Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney noted that the act requires congressional action, exceeds the roughly $300 billion slated from tariff revenues, and “would simply be inflationary.”
“The good news is, I don’t think anybody really believes it,” Mulvaney told Fox News on Thursday. “In fairness, I think it shows weakness.”
And in Wyoming, outspoken political figures blasted the proposal as well.
Campbell County Commissioner Scott Clem, who also serves in the county’s GOP committee, told Cowboy State Daily that Trump’s promise is essentially bribery.
“I think that he knows that’s probably not going to happen, as far as retaining the House and the Senate,” said Clem, who later called that possibility unfortunate. “So maybe it’s just an empty promise. Trump is Trump, but I do think it was not a very good thing to say.”
Clem cast it as a paradox with the GOP’s claimed identity as the election integrity party.
And he went even bolder on Facebook, where he posted a graphic comparing the pledge to the Wyoming legislative session’s “CheckGate” controversy.
Rebecca Bextel, then-Teton County GOP leader and now-Constitution Party candidate for governor, handed out checks, later confirmed to be campaign donations, to lawmakers on the state House floor just after adjournment Feb. 9.
Numerous representatives and the entire state Senate condemned the move, which also prompted new rules and future ethics training. But the House found no misconduct in its internal investigation.
A Laramie County Sheriff’s investigation into the incident is ongoing as of Thursday, Sheriff Brian Kozak told Cowboy State Daily.
Ferguson called Clem’s comparison ill-placed. But he used starker language to do it.
“That’s bullshit,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson said he disagrees with the act of handing out campaign donations on the House floor, but it wasn’t bribery, and he added Trump wasn’t offering bribes anyway.
Wyoming GOP Chair Bryan Miller, whom Ferguson said is also at the convention, did not return a text message request for comment by publication.
Bribery is a federal and state crime. The Wyoming Constitution treats it severely, barring anyone who commits the crime from holding public office.
The Democrat Makes A Counter Promise
State Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, countered Trump with his own promise in a Thursday Facebook post.
“I don't believe for one second that this man would ever keep this promise if Republicans retain control of Congress,” wrote Chestek. “But if they do, and Trump sends me one of his ‘dividends,’ I hereby promise to donate it entirely to the Wyoming Democratic Party.”
A Little More Context
Trump told the convention Wednesday that the country is doing so well and making so much money that, “only I can make this promise to you, and here’s my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic – tremendous economic success – like in history we’ve never had anything like what’s happening … I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the united states of America for $5,000.”
Applause and whistles sounded.
“Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution,” Trump continued, then referenced a past dividend for the military.
“The reason the Democrats don’t do that is because they don’t do tariffs, they don’t take in money. All they know is poverty and how to ruin our country. But we’re making a fortune. So if republicans win you win with us and you get $5,000.
“We’ll call it the Trump dividend,” he added. “Congratulations. Now all we have to do is win.”
Clem told Cowboy State Daily that watching this video left him “disgusted.”
And, Barrasso Digs The Democrats
U.S. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, addressed the convention before Trump did Wednesday.
He opened with quotes from the ethic printed in state law, the Cowboy Code, which includes, “live each day with courage. We take pride in our work, and we do what needs to be done.”
Barrasso said Trump and the Republican majority do that every day and are focused on America’s safety, security and prosperity.
“Our border is now secure,” said Barrasso.
Immigration, which was unrestrained in several ways under the Biden administration, was a major campaign point for Trump in 2024.
Barrasso voiced dark concerns for what will happen if “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats take over the Senate.”
Boos sounded at Schumer’s name.
Barrasso listed extremes, saying the Democratic nominee from Maine wants tax-funded health care for every illegal immigrant; the nominee from Florida is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America; the Texas nominee “says he would lay out a welcome mat at our Southern border” and the nominee in Michigan “wants to take away our guns.”
Barrasso called this cross-section a “radical road map” of Democrats who “sound like an anti-American hate group.”
He said Democrats talk as if they target billionaires, but they want to repeal tax cuts for working families so they can purchase health care for illegal immigrants.
“Democrats today are radical, extreme, dangerous, and scary,” said Barrasso.
The Wyoming Democratic Party responded Thursday with exasperation.
"We are all tired of the blame game, name-calling bullshit,” says an email statement to Cowboy State Daily, sent via Wyoming Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy Weaver. “Of course it is shameful for Senator Barrasso to go on the national stage and smear the good, hardworking people in Wyoming whose tax dollars pay his salary. But he can’t exactly talk about his record when he voted to spike our insurance premiums and sell off our public lands.”
The statement continues, “People in Wyoming don’t care about what some East Coast politician is saying on the campaign trail, we care that it costs us hundreds more dollars to fill up our gas tanks and grocery carts, and we can’t afford to see a doctor. We care that no matter how hard we work, we can’t seem to get ahead because everything costs more and we sure as heck aren’t getting paid more.”
The Party said it encourages Barrasso “to spend less of his time ranting about the imaginary policies of unnamed politicians in other states and more of it stepping out of the D.C. echo chamber to get back in touch with the real concerns of Wyomingites."
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
