Trump keeps changing who gets his $5,000 dividend—only 21% of voters believe he’ll actually pay it– fortune.com
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EXCERPT:
Politicians all over the world have been grappling with how to deal with low voter turnout, as it keeps falling in recent decades even as the number of countries holding elections (and the voters voting in them) has grown, according to International IDEA. Some jurisdictions have implemented paid holidays from work while political campaigns increasingly offer rides to the polls. Then the president of the United States recently began toying with another, arguably more enticing initiative: offering cash.
Should the GOP sweep the midterms come November, President Donald Trump promised every American adult a $5,000 check in their mailbox. It’s not the first time the noted dealmaker offered such a deal, but what is fresh is new details of who will actually get the check, which seemingly change with every passing day as the election draws closer.
As a result, voters are taking Trump’s word with a grain of salt. An Economist and YouGov poll from September found that only 21% of registered voters think Trump would “definitely or probably would” issue that $5,000 dividend if Republicans retain control of Congress, while more than half (57%) said he probably or definitely would not. Even among Republicans, less than half (45%) think Trump will follow through.
Trump first announced the payment on Sept. 9 as a $5,000 “dividend” for every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans sweep both the House and Senate in the midterm elections. Speaking at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, he introduced a dividend component—saying the payment would be made because of what he described as the country’s “tremendous strength and success economically.”
“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the midterm convention. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”
In a post on Truth Social on Oct. 3, Trump wrote: “If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 Midterm Elections, I’m going to give all Adult Citizens in the United States of America, $5,000.”