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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.

The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

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[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 8 hours ago

Multiple problems with this.

For one thing, it's blatant corruption. Attempting to bribe the voters with taxpayer dollars? Using federal funds for partisan activity?

Aside from that, didn't he make promises like that last time, which he never delivered on? How stupid could his base really be? (please don't answer that. I know they're dumb as hell).

Lastly, if we look back to his last term when he used federal money to write checks to every american adult, the effect it had on inflation as well as the national debt was enormous.

So yeah, fuck this with a rusty spoon.

[-] StrutTower@discuss.online 20 points 13 hours ago

Just making the offer of money for votes is a federal crime. You don't even have to actual do it. But of course no one in power has the balls to do anything.

[-] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

Very illegal... By the way, anyone who accepts and receives that payment is also guilty.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

End Game: Every American who accepts bribe is locked up. I refuse and I am free to run around and do whatever I want.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 hours ago

Would end a Democratic administration (at any level of government, by the way, not just federal).

Yet Republicans can do whatever the fuck they want I guess.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 10 points 16 hours ago

Note that he never promised those dollars to be US dollars. Re-watch it if you don't believe me. It could be e.g. 5000 Guyanese Dollar. They even have a nice 5000 dollar note, which would buy you a McDonalds "meal".

[-] gigaqps@lemmy.world 10 points 12 hours ago

Finding some “well actually” loophole is a 2000s kind of lie. In today’s post truth society you just make false statements and ignore people who call you out on it

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 6 points 13 hours ago

Doesn't matter, because he's lying.

[-] minorkeys@sh.itjust.works 5 points 14 hours ago

But will it work? The only question that matters when no rules are enforced. Absent law, how the American people act will determine the fae of their nation.

[-] Wilco@lemmy.zip 32 points 21 hours ago

This asshat raised my taxes $8500 a year and wants to give me $5000 one time? Yea, sure. Sadly MAGAts will fall for it again.

[-] likebudda@reddthat.com 49 points 23 hours ago

Less than a year ago he promised $2k checks from his tariffs. MAGA has the attention span of a guppy.

[-] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 19 points 19 hours ago

Fuck that, even if my vote could be bought I know how often he stiffs his independent contractors.

[-] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 59 points 1 day ago

Sorry, I'm apparently unfamiliar with how democracy works. You are allowed to pay people to vote for you?

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Short answer : no.

Long answer : legal doesn't really matter when Congress and the SC are in your pocket and refuse to hold you accountable for explicitly breaking the rules over and over again.

[-] InputZero@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Yes, but it depends on how you do it. For the USA, if it were following its own laws, which it's not, Trump can not give every person $5000 if the Republican party holds a majority in the House and Senate. That's because following the laws the House would need to appropriate the funds first, pass that, send it through the Senate, have it pass there, then be signed by the president. In a normal America, the President can say they will pressure Congress to appropriate the funds and pass it but it can't be a unilateral decision.

[-] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago

I guess technically he's just running on a "give every American adult 5k" platform ? Of course I wouldn't put it past him to try to only give them to GOP voters

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago

he's already run on "give every american adult $2k" twice and it worked once

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[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 19 points 21 hours ago

They bought his cheap made in China maga clothes

They bought his $500 dollar gold sneakers which turned out to be trash

They bought his expensive ecd knife which turned out to be gas-station-knife quality

They bought his crypto which turned out to be pump&dump and lost money

They bought gold phone which turned out to be plastic and 2 years out of date

They're buying the minted coin which they lose money on

Something tells me they'll still fall for this one thinking it will be the one that's genuine.

[-] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 14 hours ago

To be fair, a lot of Trumpty schemes are just ways to either grift or get bribes.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

They bought his $500 dollar gold sneakers which turned out to be trash

who does he think he is, Michael Johnson?

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

I think you mean Mike Basketball.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

You might be a little young for this reference

Michael Johnson was an Olympic sprinter known for wearing gold shoes. Shit I knew people, grown adults, who spray painted their runners gold after he won.

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Oh, okay, never really followed much of that stuff. Thank you for the link.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

no worries. i knew i was making an obscure reference but i didn't know how obscure.

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[-] JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago

I feel like my odds would be better with the lottery.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Lottery ticket is 2 bucks. Trump is costing the average American several hundred a month at this point. Buying a ticket for yesterday's drawing is a better use of your money.

[-] BigBenis@lemmy.world 20 points 22 hours ago

Like he was going to end the war on Ukraine in 24 hours and release the Epstein files?

[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago

Like Iran would take a week?

Like Mexico would be paying for that wall?

Like America would be great again?

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Still waiting for a replacement for the ACA, which was supposed to be so easy to do in the first week... Of his first term.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Not even Trump has enough child prostitutes to offer up to the wealthy stakeholders to make this happen.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

I would take 250,000. Isn't that the buy in for a pardon? Except I would do what he does. I would double cross him.

[-] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 1 day ago
[-] Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works 12 points 23 hours ago

And fucking liar, he will not send anyone a check period even if they did win. But fuck that vote folks are lives at stake here.

[-] cardboardboxfort@lemmy.world 14 points 23 hours ago

Still waiting for my DOGE and tariff rebate checks that he promised.

[-] hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

How’s the national debt and stagflation, Don?

Take your $5k and shove it up your ass. Tossing us crumbs to distract us from your total disaster of a presidency.

What an economic moron.

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[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I mean, Trump's entire life could be described as writing checks with his mouth that he can't actually cash.

He literally loves going bankrupt.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-king-of-debt-224642

“I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me,” Trump told Norah O’Donnell in an interview that aired on “CBS This Morning.” “I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that’s a smart thing, not a stupid thing.”

“How do you renegotiate the debt?” O’Donnell followed up.

“You go back and you say, hey guess what, the economy crashed,” Trump replied. “I’m going to give you back half.”

Clinton blasted Trump’s economic views in a speech on Tuesday, accusing him of gambling with the full faith and credit of the United States by flirting with a default on the debt.

“That could cause an economic catastrophe, and it would break 225 years of ironclad trust that the American economy has with Americans and with the rest of the world,” Clinton said. “Alexander Hamilton would be rolling in his grave. You see, we pay our debts.”

I mean, rare Hillary W, but uh yeah, we've known for 10 years what his plan here was... it's been really obvious the whole time, actually.

Anytime a Republian mentions fiscal responsibilty, you have my permission to do debt collection for the tooth fairy, from their face.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

Anyone get their Tariff refund?

Anyone get their DOGE check?

Any soldier’s families get their death benefit payout being killed in trump’s not-war against Iran?

How about the time he said “Food for everyone!” at a Miami restaruant, then walked out without paying the bill?

Once trump gets what he wants he doesn’t pay shit.

[-] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 193 points 1 day ago

We’re all just ignoring the blatant illegality of buying votes then and pretending this is normal and okay for a sitting president to do? Ok…. Cool.

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[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 72 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Man, between this, the $5000 DOGE checks that will never come, and the $2000 tariff checks that will ALSO never come? We're all rolling in it, boys!

It's raining imaginary money!

[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 30 points 1 day ago

You forgot the $1776 check for America 250.

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[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 77 points 1 day ago

Nevermind the financial cost. He's literally offering to bribe the public in broad daylight, an impeachable offense under article 2 section 4 of the US constitution:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

There's no interpretation of this section that can make Trump soliciting votes by way of bribery not an impeachable offense... But he'll get away with it again because his cronies in Congress will refuse to impeach him.

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[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago

He also said the war would end right after the mid terms. Unclear if that is also "conditional" on GOP holding senate.

The big problem with the promises is why not do these now? Does he expect democrats to be the ones blocking ending the war, or "radical lunatic left" $5000 dividend cheques? There are no Republican stooge voices supporting either plan.

It's not as crazy as destroying global and US economy IF Federal reserve (fresh stooge appointed) doesn't decrease rates, but rates are going up mostly because of Trump senility and credibility problems. Yesterday's promises are just more threats to Americans if they don't behave.

Media GOP stooges, all of them, failing to press Trump and other stooges, on why make any of these policies conditional on election results is part of their corruption.

While relief for Americans will never happen, ending the war timing is extremely puzzling. To actually get gas on a path back down to $2/gallon, it needs to be a victory declaration that permits Iran to toll the free flow of oil from the region. That would help GOP in mid terms if done now. A much more violent end of the war, involves US military losses, and long term destruction of regional infrastructure, and ultra high oil prices for years, that would cause voter disapproval if done before elections.

[-] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 4 points 14 hours ago

The bribery is awful. The "ending the war" is beyond words evil.

"If you vote for my people, I will stop murdering citizens of another country that have no say over what happens in this country"

How do you even begin to articulate the depths of cruelty in that statement? How can a human be so evil?

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this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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