US election campaign | $5,000: Trump wants to reward Americans if they win the election

Trump is trying to convince voters with cash gifts. Photo: dpa/AP/Jacquelyn Martin Dallas. The election campaign is the time for campaign promises: US President Donald Trump promises all adult Americans $5,000 (currently €4,300) each if his party wins the congressional elections. "If the Republicans win, you win with us and get $5,000," he said at the Republican convention in Dallas, Texas. "They'll call it the Trump dividend," he promised.

According to Trump, the reward will flow if Republicans can maintain their majority in both chambers of Congress in the elections. Roughly speaking, with more than 245 million adults in the country, the proposal would cost more than $1 trillion, about as much as the superpower's entire defense budget. A corresponding decision in Congress therefore seems neither politically nor financially realistic.

The idea of ​​direct payments to US citizens is not new: Trump had already brought up a direct payment of $2,000 last year, but then did not pursue it further. The money should allow Americans to contribute to the USA's customs revenue - with the exception of higher earners.

On November 3rd, around a third of the seats in the Senate and the entire House of Representatives will be re-elected in the USA. It is usual for the president's party to lose seats. Because of the wafer-thin majority, especially in the House of Representatives, a defeat for the Republicans there is considered likely.

Trump justified his $5,000 promise with what he believed to be the USA's enormous economic success. The distribution should be understood as a profit share in companies. The condition is that the money is spent in the USA. 

But unlike companies, which usually pay out profits based on profits, the US government is doing shit: the budget deficit is high, and the entire mountain of debt only recently exceeded the $40 trillion mark. dpa/nd

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