US President Donald Trump says he would offer every adult American a $5,000 (£3,700) payout if Republicans win both chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections – a plan that would cost more than a trillion dollars. The controversial offer was made in a speech at the party’s first-ever convention in the middle of a US presidential term. He gave no details on how the plan would work or where the money would come from – saying only that the money would have to be spent in the US. Democrats quickly labelled it an “empty promise” and others questioned whether such a pledge was legal.
There are nearly 270 million American adults, which means a $5,000 payout would cost the US government some $1.3 trillion. Questions about whether his plan was possible have started to be asked – especially as prices rise in the US – partially as a result of the consequences of the war that the US and Israel started with Iran in February. Iran’s retaliation has included attacks against US bases and allies in the Gulf – but crucially it has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz where about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas used to transit. The blockage has caused fluctuation in oil prices worldwide and Trump has faced pressure from his party to end the war.
On Wednesday, the US president warned his supporters that the war would not end until after the midterms and that oil prices would not come down until then. He made the comments ahead of his speech in Texas, repeating it at the convention where he argued that short-term economic pain was worth it to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump’s long speech at the Republican convention in Dallas, Texas, touched at the core of the conflict – the impact on the Americans’ standard of living and his pledge to increase their spending power drew raucous applause in the hall. “If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them,” Trump said, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.” “We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money,” he said.
“We don’t want you going to China, to Germany. You got to spend the money in the United States of America.” It is not clear how the spending would be monitored. It is not the first time that Trump promised such payouts – he has previously proposed $2,000 cheques to be funded by tariff revenues. Other US politicians in the past have also promised economic rewards in return for electoral success.
For instance, Democrats in Georgia promised $2,000 relief payments if their party took control of the Senate at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the US, Congress authorises spending and, in his speech in Dallas, the president did not say on whether he planned to ask for such approval for the payments – which he dubbed “Trump Dividends”. However, in addition to the overall cost to the US treasury, the latest offer from the US president may raise legal questions. Federal laws prohibit payments that are intended to influence voting.
However, some experts say Trump’s promise may be seen as a pledge to cut taxes – which is legal – in addition to the free-speech protection guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
