Trump Drops Wild Election Ad From the Oval Office: If GOP Wins, ‘You’ll Each Have $5,000 in Your Pocket’

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President Donald Trump put out an ad Monday reaffirming his promise to pay $5,000 to each U.S. citizen if Republicans win big in the midterms.

The ad was posted Monday morning on Trump’s social media accounts. In it, the president said:

I’m going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000. Democrat policies won’t allow this to happen. In fact, the opposite. They’re going to raise your taxes. If the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression. If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket, and economic success for our country like we have never ever seen before.

Trump first announced his plan to send the “dividend” checks to American citizens during a speech at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. That announcement drew immediate skepticism, with critics arguing that Trump was blatantly trying to bribe voters ahead of a contentious midterm cycle. In response, the Trump administration has insisted that the checks would be funded entirely by the extra revenue generated from the president’s tariffs.

Amid the backlash, Trump was asked days later if he would first need congressional approval for such an endeavor. The president suggested that would not be the case, and that response provoked even more scrutiny.

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