Donald Trump has praised the idea of a $5,000 reward to new mothers as his administration looks at ways to combat the fertility slump in the U.S.
Trump, who last month referred to himself as the “fertilization president,” was pressed by reporters Tuesday afternoon about ideas to boost birth rates, including a so-called “baby bonus.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” the president said when asked about a possible cash incentive for mothers.
Other ideas pitched to the Trump administration include expanding child tax credits, funding menstrual cycle education, and reserving space in federal programs like Fulbright fellowships for people who are married or have children, according to The New York Times.
Trump’s response came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published provisional data that 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024, with the fertility rate last year at just under 55 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age.
It marks just a one percent increase from a record low in 2023 and remains well below rates from previous years. The small uptick was driven by increased births from Asian and Hispanic women, while rates decreased among Black, White and American Indian women, according to CDC data.
The motivations behind such ideas are numerous, though many align with the right’s emphasis on the family as the building block of society.
Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint that has informed many administration ideas, opens with a chapter on how to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life,” urging traditional roles for parents.
The initiative is the brainchild of right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, which is reportedly involved in discussions about boosting birth rates with the administration, proposing ideas like researching root health and environmental causes of infertility, while expressing reticence over in vitro fertilization, a core cause of the administration.
On the 2024 campaign trail, the president referred to himself as the “father of IVF” and signed an executive order in February aimed at expanding access and affordability of in vitro fertilization.
Elon Musk, Trump’s designated government waste slasher who recently announced he would step back from his Department of Government Efficiency, wrote on X last week that “collapsing birth rates will cause any species to go extinct.”
Last month, the father-of-14 told Fox News that “humanity is dying.”
He reportedly wants to populate the world with more babies of “high intelligence” as part of a wider effort to get humans to Mars, according to the Wall Street Journal.
And in January Vice President JD Vance told anti-abortion activists at a March for Life rally that it is the “obligation” of Americans to bear children.
“So let me say very simply,” he said. “I want more babies in the United States of America.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a March memo that the department would allocate more funding to places with higher birth rates.