President Donald Trump floated $5,000 “dividend” checks to each adult American citizen if Republicans win the midterm elections, but CNN’s Audie Cornish poured cold water on his pledge.
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The 80-year-old president promised the payouts Wednesday night at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, saying he would issue the checks only if the GOP maintained its congressional majorities, and panelists on “CNN This Morning” were dubious.
“It’s easy to make these promises when you know you don’t have to keep them because he knows he’s not going to win,” said former Biden White House staffer Meghan Hays. “So it’s very easy to go out there and say it, hoping that he’ll get a few extra votes every now and then. For a low-propensity voter, that’s not paying attention, and all of a sudden they’re like, we’re going to get $5,000. These are empty promises.”
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Vice President JD Vance made a similar promise Tuesday on Fox News, saying American workers were owed rebates from the tariffs the 80-year-old president has imposed on foreign trade partners, but Cornish found the pledges somewhat off-putting.
“One thing that’s weird is after one of the Supreme Court rulings, the tariff money had to be refunded,” Cornish said. “There were a bunch of companies that took rebate checks, and they did not pass them back on to the consumer. So I’m not even sure where this revenue is, given that that pool was majorly dinged for legal reasons.”
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