Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back Thursday against an idea floated by President Donald Trump to reward U.S. taxpayers with DOGE stimulus checks. The time isn’t right, the speaker argued, to send savings from Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts back to Americans in the form of dividend checks.

President Donald Trump had said earlier this week his administration was weighing sending 20% of savings by DOGE to taxpayers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said stimulus checks tied to DOGE actions would make the Republican party look good, but added he preferred to pay off national debt.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw cold water on the idea of using savings from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) government-slashing activities to send checks to Americans.