The chaos-inducing illusion behind Trump’s new bribe

People attend the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 10, 2026.

REUTERS/Evan Vucci
John Stoehr
September 11, 2026 | 07:29AM ET

Donald Trump said during last night's "GOP midterm convention" that he would pay every adult American $5,000 if the Republicans keep control of the US Congress in November.

There are simple words for this: bribery and money laundering.

The president is calling it "the Trump Dividend," as if every taxpaying citizen were an investor in a publicly traded corporation. The Associated Press reported the cash payout 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."

Politico reported last night "GOP fiscal hawks" reacted coolly to the president's offer. "The payout ... would dwarf the amount distributed during the covid pandemic and likely explode the deficit," the news outlet said. "Trump did not detail how the checks would be financed — only that the money would be limited to citizens and required to be spent in the US."

The vice president didn't help matters when he suggested an hour later that the "dividend" would come from revenues collected from imports, ie, tariffs. The AP reported the "payment dwarfs what the US has taken in through the protectionist measures." Wherever it comes from, it would add to the national debt, which hit $40 trillion last month, the first time ever.

None of this is coherent, because it was not intended to be. The only way to make it make sense is by putting it in a larger pattern of behavior. Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to cut checks since the beginning of his second term. The Bulwark's Catherine Rampell reminded us last night the president promised "$5000 stimulus checks via 'DOGE dividend'; $2000 stimulus checks via a 'tariff dividend'; $1000-plus checks via 'savings' from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies; [and] $5000 'dividend' if Republicans win the midterms."

"No checks have been issued," Rampell said.

Ingraham on $5k dividend: Why not just give the money now?

Trump: Because the Democrats can't do it. pic.twitter.com/ioeh7KyVXH
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 10, 2026

(The grift continued this morning. Donald Trump said he would give $500 to 1 million Americans in 30 states who bought their health insurance through Obamacare exchanges. The reason? He said the Biden administration "overcharged" them. He did not explain how it happened, only that his administration is "giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off." On Wednesday, as the price of diesel was nearing $6 a gallon, the highest since 2022, he said don't worry about it. “Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” he said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”)

But set aside attempts to make sense of the nonsense to get to what's really going on. Donald Trump is trying to bribe the American people. Other presidents and presidential candidates have made promises to incentivize voters to support them or their parties, but no one in our lifetimes has been so explicit in offering fantastical cash payments for votes. The fact that they are fantastical does not undermine the allegation of vote-buying. It confirms it.

It gets worse, though. If JD Vance is right, and if the "dividend" comes out of tariffs revenues, that means the crime of bribery is compounded by the crime of money laundering.

Remember the nature of tariffs. They are a tax on imported goods. The federal government levies the fee. Importers pass the extra cost on to consumers. We are paying for Trump's tariffs, which means Trump's "dividend," if it's real, would be a kind of rebate. (If he really wanted to incentivize voters, he would drop all his tariffs, right now, but that would require admitting he was wrong, and a malignant narcissist like Donald Trump can't do that.)

But also remember that Trump's tariffs are illegal. The Supreme Court said so. That his administration is imposing a new round tariffs does not make them any more lawful than the last round. So by offering $5,000 drawn from ill-gotten gains to every adult citizen if the Republicans keep the Congress, Trump is offering the American people a piece of the action. If we accept, we will be complicit in what amounts to a gigantic money-laundering scheme.

I would like to believe the median voter has Donald Trump's number. He said he would release the Epstein files. He didn't. He said he would keep America out of wars. He didn't. He said he would bring down the cost of living. He didn't. With so many broken promises has come historic unpopularity. His approval is either on the floor or through it, depending on the poll. Majorities say the economy, inflation and "affordability" are priorities he has failed to address. All Trump can do now is lie. ("Food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down," he said last night.) Or try to bribe us. (Why not give every American five grand right now? Laura Ingraham asked today. "Because the Democrats can't do it," Trump said.)

Does the median voter really have Trump's number? Again, I would like to believe so. But as Jesse Ventura noted, the American people made their choice. They could have picked the Constitution. Instead, they picked the criminal. Now he's squeezing them so hard they might give him another chance. After all, it's $5,000. Faith in Trump hasn't worked out yet but are voters who traded the rule of law for personal gain likely to learn from their mistakes?

I hope so.