CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Rep. John McGuire, the Republican running for re-election in Virginia’s 5th District, traveled to Dallas this week to attend the conference’s mid-year conference, where Pres. Trump announced a pledge to pay Americans a $5,000-a-person “Trump Dividend” if the GOP wins majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

But not everyone in the party is applauding the idea and even McGuire declined to answer whether or not he supports the plan. A spokesperson told Cville Right Now McGuire had “no comment” regarding Trump’s proposal, which the President announced Wednesday in Dallas saying, “If the Republicans win, you win with us.”

At least one prominent area Republican publicly blasted Trump’s plan.

“We would have called that a Socialist vote-buying scheme if Obama or Biden were doing it,” former Rep. Bob Good, a Republican, said during a radio appearance on the Schilling Show on Thursday. “We’re supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. We’re supposed to be the party of the Constitution. Conservatism doesn’t mean criticizing bad policy just when Democrats do it.”

Critics, including Good, note the cost of that would be over $1 trillion at a time when the country is already facing an annual budget deficit of nearly $1.8 trillion.

“Will post-conservative Republicans also try to defend Trump’s $5K ‘dividend’ socialist vote-buying scheme that would cost nearly $1 trillion?” Good posted on social media Thursday morning. “Sadly, most ‘conservatives’ don’t even know (or care) that the president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to spend (money), or send out ‘dividend’ checks without Congress. But he said last night ‘only I can do it.'”

Good blasted the plan by likening it to former Pres. Joe Biden’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Trump proposes to give out more stimulus (money) than he and Biden did during COVID, which caused the current inflation, high interest rates & affordability crisis,” Good posted. “This while the debt today is $40T, compared the $27T it was at the start of COVID.”

Good launched Virginia Conservative Action back in July, aimed at defeating the proposed Constitutional Amendments to enshrine abortion rights and marriage equality rights into the Virginia Constitution. He was a 5th District Congressional Representative from 2021-2025, before being primaried and ousted by McGuire, thanks in large part to Trump’s support.

Trump had previously promised Americans a $5,000 stimulus checks he called a “DOGE dividend” and $2000 stimulus checks for a “tariff dividend,” though neither of those ever came to fruition.

Another former 5th District Representative, Tom Perriello, who is McGuire’s opponent on the ballot in November, told Cville Right Now “If anyone still believes the Trump checks are ‘in the mail,’ I have a set of Trump Steaks to sell them.”

“He tried this scam with tariff checks and DOGE checks that never arrived, then just kept jacking up costs,” Perriello said. “While Rep. McGuire offered an enthusiastic ‘Amen’ from the bleachers.”

Perriello attended the Senior Statesmen of Virginia Candidate Forum at the Center for Belvedere in Charlottesville on Wednesday, an event McGuire was also invited to. Perriello criticized McGuire for attending the Dallas conference, which charged members of Congress $25,000 to cover ticket and lodging, instead of meeting with district voters.

“This is just pitiful. Congressman McGuire is so scared of facing local seniors that he would rather burn $25,000 for nose bleed seats in Texas than take a few questions from the people he is paid to represent,” Perriello said in a statement released by his campaign. “This race is about asking the people of this district to hire us, but McGuire can’t even show up for the job interview?”