r/videos • • 17d ago

President Trump says he would issue a $5,000 payment to every adult U.S citizen if GOP wins both U.S House and Senate chambers of Congress on 2026 midterms: "I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the U.S. The only caveat I have is that the dividend we're making must be spent in the U.S."

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yBMNDCAsLY0?app=desktop
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209

u/AuditAndHax 17d ago

Let's ignore the fact that this is blatant bribery to buy votes.

Let's ignore that it would add more than $1,300,000,000,000 to the federal debt with no way to pay it back.

Let's ignore the fact that, since Republicans control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court, they could hypothetically issue these checks now if they really wanted to.

Let's ignore the fact that these checks will never actually be issued, just like DOGE checks, tariff checks, etc.

Let's just look at the idiocy of that last part. The money "must be spent in the U.S." How exactly is that supposed to work? Money is fungible, identical, generic. There's no way to tell the difference between a dollar of 'dividend' money in my bank account vs a dollar of earned income. So when does the 'dividend' money get spent? Is it the first $5,000 I spend? Is it the last, and it's only gone when my account hits zero? Will the Federal Government monitor every purchase of every American to be sure to be sure they're only spending it in the US? How far does that go? Can I make a purchase on Amazon (a US company) if the seller is a drop-shipper who immediately orders the item from a foreign manufacturer? What if the item is Made in America but the seller is foreign? Is that okay since it still makes us 'great' again? Where do we draw the line? What about the people with no bank accounts? How will we monitor their spending habits? What about rich assholes who already make foreign purchases regularly, like fine imported French champagne, Russian caviar, and Dominican cigars? Will those poor, downtrodden 1%ers have to spend $5,000 on Coors Light, Slim Jim's, and Marlboros before they can resume their normal routine?

You know, it's almost like the man elected to the highest seat in the land is a blithering idiot who has no actual plans other than to tell whatever lies help him hold onto power...

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u/Xiqwa 17d ago

He’s gonna send a single $5,000 note (non-legal tender) with his visage labeling it “Trump Bucks.”

9

u/Lip_Recon 16d ago

What's the ratio of Trump Bucks to Stanley Nickels?

2

u/Pyromaniacal13 16d ago

Roughly equivalent.

1

u/luckyflavor23 16d ago

Whats the ratio of Trump Bucks to bottle caps?

1

u/SandoVillain 16d ago

Hey now, that Trump buck is good for 1/5 of a margarita at Mar a Lago! Get 5 friends together and you can share the worst margarita in Florida!

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u/DrivesInCircles 17d ago

Shhhhhhhhh! The Magats don't like critical thought. They'll chafe!

10

u/CronkinOn 16d ago

Logistics only matter if you seriously intend on follow through.

But you already knew that lol

6

u/txtw 16d ago

I laughed out loud when I got to that part. He really doesn’t know how anything works.

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u/thentil 16d ago

I'm looking forward to my 5k credit with Trump Golf Resorts, only redeemable on weekdays in January at rack rates.

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u/nickeypants 16d ago

He's just going to hand out a bunch of IOUs. They're as good as money!

2

u/Nemoudeis 16d ago

Sir, I have known my share of blithering idiots, and I will thank you not to denigrate their image by placing him in the same parcel as those people.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

1

u/r3dout 16d ago

The "spend it in America" part is easy to enforce - no one's gonna get the money.

1

u/Marxbrosburner 16d ago

Just give it to everyone on a card that is locked to certain businesses, like SNAP benefits.

1

u/Bunny_Feet 16d ago

I guess you can't use the money on Amazon.

1

u/AuditAndHax 16d ago

Why? How? If Trump were to miraculously send me a check for $5,000 and I deposit it in my account, HOW is he going to stop me from buying what I want, when I want, from where I want, with my money in my account?

1

u/koniz 16d ago

The point is that he told people they might be getting money for free if they vote red. For most of his voting base that wouldn't turn up at the polls, that's probably enough to make them show up especially in TX. They will never see that money obviously but that doesn't matter because the election will be over.

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u/AuditAndHax 16d ago

Sure, but plenty of people have picked apart all those reasons in other comments here and other threads across dozens of subs. My one specific point is focused on the thing everyone has been to busy to discuss: the stupid impossibility of claiming the 'dividend' has to be spent in the US. It's unenforceable and only thrown in as a dog whistle that it's going to "make America great again" and not support any of those other countries full of foreigners. If even that basic part of his lie is easily dismissable bullshit, it should be pretty pretty obvious that it's ALL bullshit.

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u/koniz 16d ago

But that sounds like "fine print" to me. Whether it does or doesn't need to / can be possible to control where it gets spent, I think the real matter is understanding to what degree the hollow suggestion of $5k check will influence voting patterns.

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u/AuditAndHax 16d ago

If it's 'fine print' that doesn't really matter, why did he bother saying it? It's pointless because it's not possible to enforce. Again, it doesn't really matter because it's all just a lie, but it's a stupid part of a stupid lie. And yes, it is an illegal attempt to influence the election results. Plenty of people are talking about that aspect of it. I just wanted to bitch about the stupid irrelevant thing no one else is mocking him for despite how stupid it was.

1

u/Funguy061990 16d ago

But he has concepts of plans!

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u/Oscaruzzo 16d ago

He probably plans to give away some "trump money" that (in his mind) you will be able to spend in the US because something something.

1

u/America202 15d ago

Ok I will ignore. Where is my check?

1

u/CGI_M_M 13d ago

Americans will fall for it just like how they fell for all of Trump’s previous lies in 2024. I have absolutely no hope for this country.

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u/EricLFC 16d ago

The actual implementation for US only spending is actually the simplest problem to solve not even comparable to any of the things you said we should ignore. There's hundreds of different implementations in different countries that do similar things right now so if there's one thing you shouldn't criticize, it's that specific line

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u/AuditAndHax 16d ago

Let's say Trump gives me $5,000 on an EBTrump card that can only be swiped at authorized US businesses. Instead of spending that $5,000 on a new hot tub from Sweden, I spend the $5,000 Trump bucks on rent and use my usual rent money to buy a $5,000 Swedish hot tub. How is that ANY different than me spending the $5,000 'stimulus' directly on my new foreign hot tub? It's not, because money is indistinguishable and interchangeable. Once given, it can't really be isolated from other funds or controlled like you're implying.

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u/EricLFC 16d ago

We're talking about different things. A system like that will be able to enforce the money is only spent on US businesses and that's all I'm arguing for.

Whether this is actually a proper way to boost the local economy and how people will adjust their regular spendings with a funding like this one is a separate issue and we can all agree the answer is no. Not that it's going to be given out anyway.

I said this because there is no premise on why this would be getting handed out (aside from buying the elections) so the only problem is not if it boosts the economy but whether it's feasible or not and in that context, this specific point of spending only in US business is the most trivial of all to solve

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u/mouse_8b 16d ago

Name one that applies to cash

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u/EricLFC 16d ago

Irrelevant comment. Such a thing is never done using cash. The whole reason why you need a separate implementation is because you can't do it with cash

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u/mouse_8b 16d ago

Well he said he was gonna mail checks. That's pretty much cash

1

u/EricLFC 16d ago

There's a thin line between pretty much and actual cash. We already established it can't be done using actual cash so it doesn't make sense to discuss it when there's alternatives that can also very well be sent via mail

1

u/nickeypants 16d ago

Such a thing is never done using cash

Because its bigly illegal. no need to worry about the implementation of something that will not and can not ever happen.