Trump Will Never Mail the $5,000 Checks

Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump’s new promise to give a $5,000 check to every adult American citizen if Republicans win the midterm elections may be an effort to answer a variant of an age-old riddle: Can Trump devise a policy so ill-conceived that even Trump’s intelligence is insulted?”

“Candidates often make inducements part of their campaign pitch. One obvious peculiarity of this plan is that Trump’s party already controls both chambers of Congress. Why, then, should the bonus checks be contingent on voters giving Republicans another two-year majority?”

“Trump has told reporters that he could distribute the loot without congressional approval. This is untrue. (It’s a facially unconstitutional infringement of Congress’s spending authority.) If it were true, however, it would make his decision to hinge the checks on the election’s outcome even more mysterious. If the choice were his alone, the outcome would seem totally irrelevant.”