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Welcome to logout: Donald Trump is trying to bribe his way out of midterm disaster.
What happened? Over the weekend, Trump announced a plan to provide $90 payments to more than 20 million Americans age 65 and older, drawing from a pool of money called the Medicare Improvement Fund.
Trump described the payments in a post as part of a strategy to “dramatically reduce costs for seniors,” but the money is a one-time, one-time payment that will be sent out this month and was reportedly earmarked for other programs before Trump decided to reallocate the funds.
Why now? Trump, whose party faces potentially disastrous midterm elections, has been looking for any way to appeal to (Republican) voters — including implicitly or explicitly offering them cash in exchange for their support.
More explicitly, however, he also promised $5,000 if Americans re-elect Republicans in the midterm elections.
Trump tied Medicare payments directly to promised checks: “Because I solved this very important problem for the American people,” he wrote in a post, “If the Republicans win the midterms, they can also rest assured that the popular $5,000 Trump Dividend will be distributed to every American citizen!”
Will it work? It’s hard to say for sure, but it feels unlikely: Medicare payments are relatively small, and the Affordable Care Act pays out to relatively few voters. Polls show that voters do not support the promised $5,000 checks, and even fewer believe the promise will come true (and they are almost certainly right).
What else should I know? Direct payments to Americans — whether real or promised — aren’t the only way Trump is trying to swing the midterm elections in his favor. He also continues to spend taxpayer dollars on promotional advertising campaigns that he personally directs.
That’s it, time to log off…
Vaux’s unexplainable The podcast team is back with a controversial new question: What color are tennis balls? Personally, I think yellow, but whatever your opinion, it’s an interesting conversation. You can listen here , or read a partial transcript here .
Thanks for reading, have a great night and see you tomorrow!