The mythical $5,000

Sorry for the reprint, but the earlier version was published without a title and some key paragraphs.

Some excerpts from:

What A Day: Dude, Where’s My $5,000?
Donald Trump’s new $1 trillion-plus scheme to rig the midterms.
Matt Berg, Sep 10, 2026

Donald Trump’s got a new midterm pitch: Support the GOP and get $5,000. Politicians from both sides of the aisle say it’s obviously bogus.

Stop for a second. Do you believe that Donald Trump will give you $5,000 if the Republicans win?

The November midterms are rapidly approaching, and President Donald Trump is flailing. He knows the picture looks terrible for Republicans — and for his own prospects of holding power over Congress. He’s resorting to sketchy mob-boss-businessman tactics: promising loads of cash to Americans who help keep him in control.

The past 24 hours have seen two fresh attempts by Trump to convince Americans to vote for his party, in exchange for cold, hard cash. First: Trump pledged to give a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” to every adult in the United States if Republicans keep control of Congress after the midterms.

Second: Trump promised to hand out $500 checks to nearly one million Americans, who he claims have been overcharged by Obamacare.

Is that the same Obamacare that for the past ten years he has been promising to replace with a “better’ program?

Is that the same Obamacare that has been protecting millions of Americans, who otherwise couldn’t afford healthcare, and that now Trump’s “Big Beautiful bill has emasculated beyond recognition?

You shouldn’t start spending that dividend yet. Politicians brushed aside the initiatives as Trump just being Trump.

“Donald Trump is a known liar. I mean, [the dividend] was just a joke,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told What A Day. “He’s been talking about giving out $5,000 DOGE checks [which] never came.

He added: “People don’t want more lies. What they want is for him to actually focus on lowering the cost of their everyday goods.”

Democrats aren’t the only ones throwing cold water on the idea. “I would like to know how they would plan to pay for … well over $1 trillion,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who is retiring.

Actually, paying for it would be no problem for the federal government, which could create that trillion dollars simply by pressing a trillion dollar coin and depositing it into the Federal Reserve Bank.

31 U.S.C. 5112(k) as originally enacted by Public Law 104-208 in 1996: The Secretary may mint and issue bullion and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.

In 2000, the word “bullion” was replaced with “platinum bullion coins”.[10] According to the United States Mint: “A bullion coin is an investment-grade coin that is valued by its weight and fineness of a specific precious metal.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, said the legal basis of the trillion-dollar coin is sound and that the coin could not be challenged in court as no one would have standing to do so.

Not only would that pay for Trump’s fever dream of sending you $5,000 or $500, depending on what he ate for dinner, but it also would pay for Social Security and no-deductible Medicare for everyone in America, and if Trump has any upcoming lawsuits for attacks on women, he’d want the coin to pay for those, too.

BUT DEFICIT! BUT DEBT!
For those who still stress about federal deficits and federal debt, I have good news for you. You can stop stressing. The federal deficit merely means that the federal government spends more than it taxes.  But since the federal government has the infinite ability to create dollars, the deficit is a good thing.

Why? Because those deficit dollars are growth dollars added to the economy. In fact, they are necessary for economic growth. When the federal government fails to run a deficit, we have a recession or a depression.

And as for the “debt,” it’s not really debt. It’s the total of private deposits into Treasury accounts, which the government repays by merely sending the money back to depositors, plus interest. Think of  your bank savings account, and you will have a good idea what the misnamed “debt” is.

So, in the extremely unlikely event that Donald Trump ever kept a promise, and actually gave each American $5,000, that would provide a wonderful, trillion dollar boost to the economy.

He actually should do it on a regular basis to narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest.

BUT INFLATION!
Contrary to popular wisdom, inflation never is a result of too much money. Inflation always results from shortages of crucial goods and services, most often oil or food.

Today’s inflation has been caused by Trump’s “non-war” with Iran and Iran’s “unexpected” (by Trump) blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane.

Cure the shortage and you cure the inflation.

Of course, Trump is not going to do that or anything else that benefits you, because it wouldn’t benefit him. Once the election is over, there is nothing you can do for him, so you will mean nothing to him.

Vice President JD Vance claimed that the $5,000 checks would be covered by revenue generated from tariffs. Fact check: Tariffs have not generated nearly enough money to cover the “dividend.”

How nice. Tariffs are a tax on YOU. So, Trump can tax you, give you your money back, and then claim he has done something for you. What a great deal.

Yes, Trump lies all the time, and he hasn’t followed through on past pledges to give out money. But there’s a bigger problem here: Trump has successfully normalized his interest in election tampering. That’s particularly concerning, as nearly half of Americans don’t think the midterms will be conducted fairly.

Vance warned GOP donors that Democrats will “bury the American people in investigations and bullshit” if they win.

And who would know better than Vance about burying the American people in investigations and bullshit, except by “American people” he really means “Trump and his crooked gang.”

“We’re thinking about all of the kinds of Trump grift and schemes,” Garcia told me. He listed a few issues off the top of his head: A Trump-linked firm selling pardons. Trump’s stock trading. His family’s crypto earnings. Don Jr. and Eric Trump’s other business ventures tied to the government. Jared Kushner’s $2 billion business in the Middle East, while informally serving as a top diplomat.

“All of that has to be investigated, and we’re very committed to that,” Garcia said. “We’ve already started a lot of that work.”

Yes, despite the best efforts of the Supreme Court to make Trump king via their phony “Unitary Executive” claim, the Donald will still have to answer to the law. And let us be clear: No President in American history has broken so many laws, hurt so many people, and illegally so enriched himself as Donald J. Trump has.

If Trump doesn’t go to jail, then we might as well close the jails and free the majority of the inmates, because compared to Trump, they would look like angels.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell