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.
207 Comments
TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip · 195 pts · 1d
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.
TheFogan@programming.dev · 39 pts · 1d
Maybe he can get away with it using say the strategy pepsi tried for their millitary jet comercial etc... IE a "no reasonable person would believe it was a real offer".
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
That did work in court. And no reasonable person would believe anything that comes out of Trump's mouth.
PineRune@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 1d
He's not buying anything if he never pays for it.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 30 pts · 1d
A bribe welched upon is still a bribe.
turtlesareneat@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 1d
This is like that sketchy parent who gives you a big gift, but you don't realize until much later they used your credit to do it, which is now trashed.
artyom@piefed.social · 9 pts · 1d
Karmanopoly@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
You're also ignoring that you're $40 trillion in debt and not doing so well economically.
This adds another trillion or two lol
daychilde@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Who's ignoring? Do you mean the Republicans who control Congress well enough to prevent any impeachment?
Zugyuk@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal, right? /S
hanrahan@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 1d
didn't the supreme court give him total immunity?
bus_factor@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 1d
He's not really buying votes if he's promising it to everybody. At that point it's just a stimulus.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 1d
It's a bribe because it's conditional on Republicans holding congress. He's buying votes. Whether or not he'd actually make good on the offer is an entirely separate matter.
bus_factor@lemmy.world · -12 pts · 1d
I get where you're coming from, but he could easily argue that he needs a Republican majority for the bill to pass, and that the conditional is referring to that.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 1d
He could. I still think it's a textbook bribe, but ultimately it would have to be congress deciding, and I doubt they would judge based on the US code so much as they would be weighing their election chances with President Trump vs President Vance.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1d
All republican stooges are changing the subject when few are asked about it. Unless they tack on gas chambers for immigrants, enough dems would vote for this if they had GOP minority proposing the bill in solidarity.
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 1d
If it's contingent upon people doing something that he wants, it's a bribe. It doesn't matter if it's other things too. A bribe can take many forms.
obvs@lemmy.world · 112 pts · 1d
If you think you're going to receive $5,000 if Republicans win the 2026 election, then you don't realize who made you need the extra $5,000 in the first place.
chisel@piefed.social · 24 pts · 1d
Exactly. Idk about you, but Trump has undoubtedly cost me way more than $5k with just his 2 years back in office. And that's before considering the catastrophic long-term effects he's had on costs.
nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 1d
$5.50 diesel vs the $3.75 high of the Biden years is
$8,750$875 a year extra in diesel for someone getting average 20mpg and driving 10,000 miles a year (both those are generous figures for coal rolling brodozer owners).Edit: thanks I was a little tired when I divided the 10,000 in my head!
Now I need to look up real mileage and real driving distances too, it’s probably closer to 12k miles a year on average, but the real costs from expensive fuel are obviously the food production costs, and the delivery of everything.
24_at_the_withers@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
10000 / 20 = 500 gallons. Total cost of the fuel using your $5.50 is $2750, and the difference is $875.
Your decimal is in the wrong place.
nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1d
Thanks. I made an edit. I should stop scrolling in the morning.
Dultas@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
I'm still waiting for my DOGE check.
Jeffsthebestboy@piefed.ca · 1 pts · 12h
I hope you’re comfortable.
Dultas@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
Physically yes, emotionally could be better.
Th4tGuyII@fedia.io · 78 pts · 1d
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:
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.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 1d
I'd love for that to happen, but realistically, any blanket term the public should want that you campaign with could be construed as bribery.
"Vote for our party and if we win, we're going to get universal healthcare and medicine and do away with medical insurance filth"
See. Now the public is being bribed with a functioning government that works for its citizens.
wols@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 18h
These things are not analogous. Trump isn't saying "vote for me and if I win I'll use my newly invested powers to give you xyz".
He's saying "vote for my friends and I'll use the power I already have to give you xyz".
There's definitely a difference, the second being much more coercive. Imagine if instead he threatened to send people to fight in Iran if republicans didn't win the midterms. Whether this is illegal I don't know, but it should be.
It's also much weaker rhetorically. You can't say "I haven't given you the $5k yet because I didn't have power before".
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 10h
I've already heard lawyers chiming in and saying it isn't technically illegal.
But yeah, theres a lot of things that should be illegal.
mycodesucks@lemmy.world · 72 pts · 1d
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 pts · 1d
You forgot the $1776 check for America 250.
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
And the DOGE checks we were supposed to get after DOGE was gonna save us trillions of dollars.
VoodooAardvark@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1d
Oh the tariff checks came.. they just went to the businesses after they inflated their prices to account for the additional tax, got to keep the refund themselves even though prices went up still, and then never lowered prices
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 59 pts · 1d
Sorry, I'm apparently unfamiliar with how democracy works. You are allowed to pay people to vote for you?
Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 18 pts · 1d
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
johnyreeferseed@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 1d
Let's be real. No one would get actually get it.
SippyCup@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
Funding only available in safe red districts.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
he's already run on "give every american adult $2k" twice and it worked once
Snowies@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 1d
If you convince enough wealthy people apparently “democracy” means you can just do whatever you feel like.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 1d
No, and this is a violation. Either paying $5k dividend is a good or bad idea. Congress will vote on it. You can't say that it is only a good idea if Nazis keep control of congress.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 1d
Yep. This is how Doug Ford is Premiere of Ontario. He literally went into low income housing and gave out $20 bills.
the_armchair_potato@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Yeah, democracy, according to the Americans . They also allow their "leader" to make "executive" decisions like a dictator 😆.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 23h
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 pts · 23h
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.
JailElonMusk@sopuli.xyz · 53 pts · 1d
Man I'm going to take this money and combine it with:
My DOGE dividend that divididnt.
My Tariff rebate check that is non existent.
Same song, same dance, same rubes.
likebudda@reddthat.com · 50 pts · 1d
Less than a year ago he promised $2k checks from his tariffs. MAGA has the attention span of a guppy.
Aeao@lemmy.world · 44 pts · 1d
The guy who never pays people what he owes them says once again that we’ll get a vague mystery check sometime soon? I’m going to go ahead and hold my breath for that.
im_fine_sandy@nord.pub · 3 pts · 1d
He also said that the Iran war will be over the day after the election.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Ded nao?
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 35 pts · 1d
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.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d
The real economic morons are the ones who are excited that they are getting $5k if the repubs stay in congress.
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 1d
And this. $5k means nothing with stagflation and worsening conditions for workers, no plan to address climate change, massive economic inequality, out of control healthcare costs, ballooning deficit due to insane, needless military spending, disgusting fascism, blatant corruption. etc.
$5k is like two months rent for some people. Okay, what then? Back to the same old usual shit.
architect@thelemmy.club · 8 pts · 1d
They won’t fucking get 5k
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
And that all assumes a complete change of heart from the GOP that hasn't paid those doge checks or tarriff refunds.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Yeah $5k for every American with no new taxes is just a massive burst in inflation. It can be done strategically in a situation like covid where the economy needs to be maintained from collapse due to a temporary situation of no work, but that's about it.
In a depression you spend money, but you do it by making jobs to get nice to haves.
Wilco@lemmy.zip · 33 pts · 1d
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.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 1d
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.
solidgrue@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 1d
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 31 pts · 1d
THAT'S BRIBERY
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 1d
Yep. And you know what they say about bribery:
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 1d
The key thing is "...on Impeachment for, and Conviction of..." Which isn't going to happen if things stay as they are.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1d
I don't know. This is pretty brazen, and the midterms aren't looking good for the Republicans. If enough GOP congressfolk think they'd be better off facing the midterms under the stalwart leadership of President Vance, I could see them moving en masse behind an impeachment push. The ball has to start rolling somewhere though, and I don't know which representative would be likely to introduce articles and palatable to enough Republicans that they could join under the color of bipartisanship.
All that presumes a congress that doesn't suck though, and when in doubt, congress sucks. Being the first mover is dangerous, especially with Trump still at the helm. I'm not saying it's likely, but it could happen.
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 1d
Any Republican worth anything would do it "as a patriot." Bipartisanship is fine, but "patriotism" is their whole thing. When a president does something this bold it should be easy to benefit by being someone who actually stands up for what they speak about so often. Obviously this is in a sane world though, and it also requires that they care about real patriotism, not nationalism.
tmyakal@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 1d
This is especially true when the guy you need to stand up to has a 32% approval rating. It's not hard to look good when you're kicking the guy no one likes, and it honestly might be the move to flip centrists away from the "woke" progressives that are winning primaries.
Not that I want that. I'd rather have the progressives win and start sending fuckers to the Hague. But I'd be shocked if there wasn't some conservative think-tank mapping out this possibility.
BillyClark@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1d
The 14th Amendment doesn't even require impeachment or any sort of conviction. It says that if you previously held office and then engaged in insurrection, you instantly have a disability that keeps you from holding any office, and Congress is only able to vote to remove that disability.
Essentially, it works backwards from the rest of the constitution and due process and all that shit. It kept Confederates out of US government, despite how they were not impeached or even criminally convicted of insurrection. Exactly as intended.
But you saw how effectively that was enforced when Chief Justice Roberts swore Trump in last year. Conservatives in power just ignore any laws that are inconvenient to them.
im_fine_sandy@nord.pub · 1 pts · 1d
arin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Lmao
NekoKoneko@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 1d
Just going to ignore the "if Republicans retain control of the House and the Senate", huh, AP?
Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
They will never pay up.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social · 29 pts · 1d
The democrats should offer $7500.
Bid for my vote!
grue@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1d
They would immediately be indicted, LOL.
ExFed@programming.dev · 7 pts · 1d
Make it $10k, bring back graduated corporate taxes (with global consolidated income to prevent ferreting away income in a plethora of international subsidiaries), and actually pledge to solving the debt and I'm sold.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social · 0 pts · 1d
Hahahaha.
You want to add over two trillion to the debt and a promise to solve it?
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 1d
They also proposed something that would raise money. That used to be how a lot of this stuff happened. If you wanted to increase spending, it usually came with at least a discussion on how to offset it.
grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Ironically, only the Democrats are actually fiscally-conservative.
DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org · 26 pts · 1d
D E S P E R A T E
Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 1d
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 pts · 1d
Still waiting for my DOGE and tariff rebate checks that he promised.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 23 pts · 1d
So Lech Wałęsa, during first democratic elections in Poland after the fall of communism in 1990, promised that if he wins every citizen will get 100.000.000PLN ($2.5k, lots of money in Poland in 1990). People laughed, there were songs about it but he did win the elections. Of course no one got 100M PLN.
Years later I saw some documentary about rural regions in Poland and they were talking with some farmer from a tiny village. He looked and talked like he could barely read...
Farmer: Wałęsa was not my President.
Reporter: So you didn't vote for him?
Farmer: I did because he promised me 100M PLN...
So yes, people can be that stupid. MAGA definitively is stupid enough to buy it.
StrutTower@discuss.online · 23 pts · 23h
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 · 10 pts · 22h
Very illegal... By the way, anyone who accepts and receives that payment is also guilty.
Doomsider@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19h
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 pts · 19h
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.
BigBenis@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 1d
Like he was going to end the war on Ukraine in 24 hours and release the Epstein files?
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1d
Like Iran would take a week?
Like Mexico would be paying for that wall?
Like America would be great again?
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 23h
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 pts · 18h
Not even Trump has enough child prostitutes to offer up to the wealthy stakeholders to make this happen.
flop_leash_973@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
Fuck that, even if my vote could be bought I know how often he stiffs his independent contractors.
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
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.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
who does he think he is, Michael Johnson?
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
I think you mean Mike Basketball.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19h
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 pts · 18h
Oh, okay, never really followed much of that stuff. Thank you for the link.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 17h
no worries. i knew i was making an obscure reference but i didn't know how obscure.
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 4 pts · 1d
To be fair, a lot of Trumpty schemes are just ways to either grift or get bribes.
NoMoreCocaine@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
No idea how you came up with such a radical idea. Seems like a long shot to me.
/s
ulkesh@piefed.social · 19 pts · 1d
And half the country will believe him. Because they’re that fucking stupid…still.
IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 1d
Just like he promised no new wars.
Professorozone@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1d
Well he has a great reputation for paying people.
forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 1d
Where are my DOGE checks?!
Snowies@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d
The same place the rest of his promises are at.
modus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I have family in Southern New Jersey where he absolutely ruined people by not paying them for building his bullshit, gaudy casinos. Yet the whole region is crazy for him. Stupid is as stupid does.
Heikki2@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
What are you talking about? He loves to pay people... with other people's money
hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d
Let’s print $1T dollars, meanwhile my assets get a boost from the inflation!
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 1d
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 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.
Hello_there@fedia.io · 15 pts · 1d
He's cost us that much in fuel duties and tariffs. Dem line should be they going to reverse that, then give more money back in tax breaks to midd class
artyom@piefed.social · 5 pts · 1d
And pledge to tax billionaires like Trump to make up for it.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
No. Do cash payments. Stop doing wonkish shit like this where oridinary people people can't notice it in their lives because its obscured through taxation where too many people wont' even understand its just a payment.
Hello_there@fedia.io · 5 pts · 1d
You know, this is the way we get a perpetual wealth tax. Dividend checks out to every citizen based on how much wealth we squeeze out of their pockets.
Like the alaska payment - but raping the pockets of the rich instead of raping nature
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 1d
Who downvoted this? Is there some secret contingent who hate cash but love complicated tax breaks?
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Democrats. You are describing Democrats. Not necessarily voters, but like, the actual party. And they actually think means testing is like, some super secret thing that actually improves things.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 1d
See I always interpreted it as a way to get "moderate republicans" on board; triangulation tells them that if they move their policies to the right, then moderates who are afraid of good polucy will vote for them. I remember Obama talking about how not free his healthcare plan was, repeating "skin in the game" dozens of times.
gnate@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
It doesn't have to be complicated. Actually collecting taxes from billionaires would likely be enough for both, but I'd rather see good policy over a one time bandaid (even as someone that can't currently pay rent.)
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 1d
Where you get the funds is irrelevant to the conversation, I am trying to understand the mind of somebody who genuinely believes complicated, means-tested tax breaks is better policy than literally just giving people checks with your party's name on it.
I assumed this was like cable-news poisoned boomers who like free healthcare and not haulling their neighbors off to concentration camps and not blowing up school children in Iran, but had it drilled into their head that complicated, means-tested healthcare for the deserving is more feasible, and having ICE politely escorting their neighbors into a van out of view is more realistic, and waging the war more competently is electable.
But someone who genuinely wants the enshittifed-until-they-help-nobody versions of good policies is baffling to me.
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1d
When I was growing up (in a very conservative environment) means tests were usually sold as being both fiscally prudent, because giving benefits to someone who doesn't truly, desperately need it is wasteful spending; and civic-minded, because all that money that money that was saved can go toward some other vaguely-defined government expenditure. The cost-benefit analysis never really came up, it was just taken as given that means testing would reduce the number of recipients and therefore reduce the overall cost. It truly did not occur to me that means tests might not be worth the cost of implementing them until I got to college and met my first leftist.
I think the notion that means tests increase efficiency and reduce costs is a pretty widespread one, even among left-leaning folk. And Americans IME are very suspicious of giving something to someone without any preconditions or strings attached, unless they know the recipient personally.
dracc@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 1d
This, but working class.
Heikki2@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d
Where the hell is my $2000 DOGE check? I'm starting to thing this guy is full of shit and not just in his diaper
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 1d
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 pts · 23h
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?
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 1d
In the Trump economy, that $5,000 might just barely cover the cost of a month's expenses.
It would be much better if we just put down the mad DOGE and took back the money stolen by the Trumpian mafia.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1d
Give us medicaid instead
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1d
Best he can do is another $1.7T in debt.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 23h
Pfffff. That a problem for people who pay debts. Kings don't pay.
Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 10 pts · 1d
The sad thing is that many right-wing voters genuinely believe every word Trump says, and that anything he says that doesn't come to pass is due to someone else interfering in his otherwise 'sound' plans.
postman@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 1d
"He does what he says he's gonna do!"
I've heard that in so many MAGA interviews.
Waffelmeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
A Republican mind always oscillates between "he's just kidding" and "he tells it like it is".
::: spoiler It's pure doublethink To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
He won’t do it.
But good grief think how fucked we are that $5K is an amount that makes people salivate.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
how pathetic that half the median global annual income makes salivate.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Okay but that’s not how economics works.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
your inexperience with poverty and living in other countries is not their inexperience with poverty and living in other countries
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Does not change the fact that that isn’t how economics WORKS.
deifyed@lemmy.wtf · 10 pts · 1d
This generates more incentive for the politicians to keep the people poor. The poorer the people are, the cheaper winning a vote is since less money will be enough motivation to sway them
daannii@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
Just like the doge checks and the tariff rebates. And and
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
Even if we win I won’t pay! 🫲🍊🫱
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1d
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 · 11 pts · 21h
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 pts · 23h
Doesn't matter, because he's lying.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2h
Why on earth would I not believe you? Nobody legitimately makes the distinction unless it's ambiguous, and to Trump's tapioca pudding brain, it's far from ambiguous because the US dollar is the only dollar that exists.
This is a weird attempt at a gotcha, when the reality is that he has no intention of fulfilling this promise and no intention of justifying his failure to do so. If the GOP retains control of the legislative branch, the checks will never be mentioned again.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 1d
Not that anybody but billionaires will ever get paid
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d
Haven't read that in over 20 years, but poking around and found this just a couple paragraphs after your quote and it is also very fitting...
Poking around the text was chilling.
nullify3112@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
Now do it every other month and call it UBI. Oh no we can’t have that? That would be communism?
volore@scribe.disroot.org · 9 pts · 1d
And I'm sure he'll follow through on that, just like all his other debts.
peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
Could America sink any lower....yes, the answer is always yes.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I'm morbidly curious to see just how low it's going to get
I say this from the privilege of a civilised country, but unfortunately when the US does something stupid (and it's always stupid, the economic consequences echo around the globe
Pratai@piefed.ca · 7 pts · 1d
It’s not illegal if your above all known laws.
fox2263@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1d
Weren’t yall promised money from tariffs and doge and shit. Got any of that money yet?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
Antifa hasn't paid me a cent, yet. I'm not trusting this guy.
Also, for a bribe to work, you need to pay first.
tacoplease@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
Payment upfront mohterfukka
SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
In other words, Trump feels the only way that Americans will vote for candidates who support his unpopular agenda is to bribe them.
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
Republicans: lol hes just joking.
Fuck trump
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 1d
Buying the presidency seems so american, /s. Good news though, if he is desperately trying to give money away you know his election toppling plans are not very good. Be ready america and watch those polls with your video phones come election night.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 17h
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.
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
Narcissists just proiect their values on other people, and disregard what the people actually need.
Source: my mum is a fucking narcissist.
minorkeys@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 23h
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.
spirinolas@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
If they win they'll pay in some worthless crypto. Mark my words.
Kirp123@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
They won't even bother. Did you get your DOGE money? Or Tariffs refunds?
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I can imagine all kinds of idiots falling for this, even if legally questionable and he's about as likely to come through as he did for his promises on child care in 2016....
I have someone in my family that said they were voting for him in 2016 because of his child care promise. I often think of that when I reflect on him and Pence and other idiots in his camp all repeating that slogan and getting their republizombies to parrot it: "promises made, promises kept".
Avicenna@programming.dev · 5 pts · 1d
eh I think people should only be reminded about what happened with his promises of lower grocery prices and how much richer the billionaires, including himself, got since he took office
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1d
January 20th, 2029, I will instruct my treasury secretary to issue $10,000 checks to every US citizen, if I am elected President.
decolo@piefed.social · 2 pts · 1d
you've got my vote. I've already bought a pony on credit in anticipation of your check
queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1d
A pony? You sound like a savvy investor. You know, for a modest fee of $500 you could be a part of my Premium Insider Patriots Initiative. It's a small group, available only to those who have proven that they are willing to go into debt for my cause. If I win, members get an additional $5000. That's a 10x investment, and you know it's legit, just check the math.
If you're in, put the money into a bottle and throw it into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and the antifa goblins I sent to wreck the place that live there now will deliver it to me. Allegedly sent.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 1d
Make it $10K, and I'll consider it, but I want 50% up front.
(Fuck this treasonous pedophile, I'll take his money, and still vote for the most Commie candidates I can find)
aesthelete@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
"dubious"
It's a fucking lie.
bcgm3@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
At this point, he'd just be giving back 5000 of the dollars he's taken from everybody this term.
Hayduke@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Why does this sort of promise sound as familiar as it does unfulfilled?
normalentrance@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1d
Feels like the third check he has offered now that will not materialize. This one feels extra dumb.
"Hey, so we're fucking up everything on purpose to get richer. But .. If you let us stay in power we'll pay you"
UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Sure, his promises ar reliable.
thatOneGuy@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 1d
Sure, go right ahead and add something like $1.6T to the national debt. Fuck it - why not!
adarza@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 1d
it would be more like another $10 trillion after tax cuts and credits for the wealthy that would absolutely piggyback on any republicant legislation giving a mere $5000 to every 'us adult'.. and the new donnie dollars will require a birth certificate, fingerprints, facial scan, social logins, and dna sample to
collectapply for.psycho_driver@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 1d
If my morning math is mathing it would be 150 billion (based on population of 300 million--probably less adults than that).
thatOneGuy@aussie.zone · 7 pts · 1d
I did ~330m x $1000 = ~$330b x 5 = $1.65t
e: Mind you, it’s 9:30pm here and I’m exhausted looking after a newborn, so I may be missing something. 😅
Professorozone@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
The article actually said $1T. But it IS 9:30pm. I get it.
whatstatersprecious@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
It is not, in fact, mathing.
SecretiveVault@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d
I'll pass on the $5k just to watch that idiot lose
Corvidae@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Alt title: Why the Trump Admin wants tracking of ballots and likely elimination of ballot secrecy.
Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
I'd rather have pedo Trump and his circus out of power than an extra $5k.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
its just another outright lie as an attempted bandaid on a bleeding party. everyone with a lick of sense knows its a lie even if none of his sycophants do
JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1d
I feel like my odds would be better with the lottery.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 23h
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.
AdhesiveMadMan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Cool. Epstein files?
800XL@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
So Trump wants to redistribute wealth from those tha pay more in taxes to those that don't? Hmm, there's a word for the redistribution of wealth but I can't remember what it is. I do know that Republicans have waged wars over it at the request of conglomerates though.
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
He won't.
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Fuck the noise. His maga 30% will turn up at the polls. Theres more people who see and recognise his bullshit, only they refuse to tackle the problem by bothering to vote. Stop getting distracted.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
This would be a progressive tax refund. I generally support these. $5k helps a lot of people out, but doesn’t help out the top 10% at all.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 10 pts · 1d
Trump put work requirements and monthly reporting on SNAP and Medicaid, decreased social security payouts.
He taxed US Citizens with a tariff and when forced to pay it back he refunded it all to corporations.
The federal deficit has increased massively and even with 53 senators he cant get a budget passed without months of debate and a reconciliation.
The chance of him giving out $5k is less than nothing.
SomethingWentWrong@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 1d
There were previous DOGE dividends (thousands of dollars) and Tariff dividends of $2,000 which never happened:
https://www.trumpstruth.org/statuses/29768
Less than a year ago Trump posted:
https://www.trumpstruth.org/statuses/33756
Since then the debt has grown by $3 trillion dollars and no dividends have been paid out. What's changed since then is rather than not paying out $2,000 he will now not pay out $5,000.
GraniteM@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Democratic leadership should call his bluff and pledge to work across the aisle to pay everyone $5000 even if they take control of the House and Senate.
Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 22h
Unfortunately, among the many historical examples of countries running the currency printing presses to try to buy citizens' compliance, it has never gone well. I guess in the digital age at least we wouldn't have to roll our grocery money around in a wheelbarrow.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 19h
THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO CALL A BLUFF THIS IS BLATANTLY FUCKING ILLEGAL OH MY GOD I'M LOSING MY MIND
betanumerus@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 6h
Randelung@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Isn't that the same kind of manipulation they're accusing Musk of currently? He literally wants to buy the elections.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 23h
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.
AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social · 1 pts · 1d
Wow! 5000?!? I'd certainly vote for him if I could! The economy is going so so so so well that this is certainly plausible to happen, right? It's not as if the US had the highest debt of all its history, an affordability crisis, an ongoing war that's making the gas prices skyrocket and a record amount of people not being able to go to a doctor...
I'm certain it's possible to get those 5 grands...
Alexfire@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
he is a liar,
That's bad, but he's delulu,
And that's even worse!
Sektor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Idiots of America, rejoice!
TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 1d
Sounding desperate
JustTheWind@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
KonalaKoala@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
Or maybe the asshat wants to turn Elon Musk over to get the $1 trillion from him, which will be enough to pay two hundred million American adults $5,000 each while having him go from the world's richest man to the world's poorest man, and him going from being filthy rich to living in a filthy ditch due to all the DOGE and CYBERTRUCK failures.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Well, the average Trump voter is probably stupid enough to fall for this lie. And he might even get some desperate stoners and junkies to vote for him...
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 1 pts · 1d
I don't think we should be repeating such lies which make him look good.
Maybe one of the other 21 lies he tells a day can be focused on? Or any of the other shit around the world.
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 1d
VOTE FOR TRUMP!
-People who want to KILL Socialists!
newton@feddit.online · 1 pts · 1d
Lies!!!!!
psycho_driver@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
This is hopeful. Maybe they haven't had time to get all their fixes in.
Smaile@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1d
Would an American take a bribe of 5k and continue lashing itself for another 2 years...
Yah probubly...
mattyroses@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d
I dunno, in the year those checks would take to get out, that MIGHT get you a value meal. No supersize though.
isekaihero@ani.social · 1 pts · 1d
I would pray to God that he loses, but God created this mess in the first place.
This is a train with no brakes and I'm just along for the ride.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1d
That would be about 1750000000000USD....
RabbitBBQ@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 21h
I'm all for it honestly, after $40 trillion in debt the least they can do is start giving everyone else some of it before the whole thing collapses
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 17h
People would end up burning their banknotes for warmth, because it would be worthless at that point.