The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Trump keeps promising Americans $5,000 — curious GOP candidates suddenly have very little to say

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BS BULLETIN:

  • President Donald Trump is continuing to promise a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to every American adult if Republicans keep control of Congress.
  • But Republican candidates in competitive races have largely avoided making Trump’s checks part of their own campaigns.
  • At Trump’s North Carolina rally Wednesday, the GOP candidates who spoke didn’t mention the $5,000 promise at all.

President Donald Trump has given Republicans a rather difficult campaign promise to ignore.

Five thousand dollars for every American adult.

Yet some Republican candidates seem determined to try.

Trump doubled down on his proposed “Trump dividend” Wednesday while campaigning in battleground North Carolina.

“If we win,” Trump told the crowd, “we’re going to get you $5,000. So that’s it. Very simple.”

Then the Republican candidates sharing Trump’s stage spoke.

And according to an Associated Press review, they had nothing to say about the $5,000 checks.

That silence isn’t limited to North Carolina.

More than a week after Trump unveiled the proposal at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, AP found little evidence that GOP candidates in competitive House and Senate races have incorporated the pledge into their campaigns.

The promised checks aren’t showing up prominently in Republican television advertising.

Candidates generally aren’t highlighting them on the stump.

And when reporters ask about the proposal, many Republicans have been reluctant to embrace it.

The Republican National Committee has a different idea.

“Of course we encourage all Republican candidates to run on his agenda, and that includes efforts to put more money in the pockets of the American people,” RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre told the AP.

There are exceptions.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who is fighting for reelection in a competitive district, has publicly supported Trump’s proposal.

But other Republicans have raised questions about the enormous price tag and how the government would pay for it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that Trump would need Congress to authorize the payments.

Trump had previously suggested congressional approval might not be necessary.

Johnson nevertheless pledged to work with the president to try to get the proposal through Congress.

“He’s the big ideas president,” Johnson said. “We’re going to try to implement everything we can.”

The cost is one reason some Republicans aren’t rushing toward the idea.

Providing $5,000 to every adult citizen could cost more than $1 trillion.

Trump argues that America’s economic growth would make the payments affordable.

“We have tremendous growth,” Trump said last week. “We have growth like no country has ever seen before.”

“We can easily handle that because we’re taking in so much money,” he said separately.

Some fiscal conservatives in Trump’s own party remain unconvinced.

Rep. Chip Roy estimated the proposal would cost roughly $1.2 trillion.

Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie joked that he was insulted by the notion his vote could be bought for $5,000 — before adding that, considering inflation, he couldn’t accept less than $10,000.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared the idea to socialism.

Trump, however, isn’t backing away.

He has explicitly tied the dividend to Republicans maintaining control of both chambers of Congress in November.

“If the Republicans win,” Trump said when unveiling the idea in Dallas. “You win with us and you get $5,000.”

And Wednesday in North Carolina, he repeated the promise.

The interesting part now may not be what Trump is saying.

It’s what some of the Republicans standing next to him aren’t saying.

MY QUICK TAKE

Usually when a politician promises everybody five grand, the candidates standing behind him fight to get closer to the microphone.

These guys suddenly seem fascinated by their shoes.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

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