Trump promised $5,000 to US voters. Is that legal?

Trump is proposing a $5,000 dividend to every U.S. citizen of legal voting age. That's about 240 million people, which would come to about $1.2 trillion. That's a lot of money. Very much like a successful company will do, a cash distribution to its shareholders. He's saying he would give this money to everybody after the midterm elections if his Republicans won, retain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Now, is this legal? This kind of sounds like a bribe, right? The surprising answer is that this is probably legal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled back in 1982 that candidates can promise things to voters, and they can try to deliver those things to voters, as long as they do that through normal government processes. This is the sort of thing that has happened in the past. If you recall back in 2021, Joe Biden won the presidency. He's campaigning for a special election in Georgia. He says, OK, if we win this seat, then we win control of the Senate, then we will pass another stimulus check, another COVID check for people. That was a pretty explicit promise. The Democrats won that election, and they would go on to give more money to American people, more direct checks. Trump himself has made promises like this in the past. If you recall when he was running for election in 2024, he said, if you vote for me, I'll give a tax break for seniors. I'll give a tax break for people who rely on tipped income. Sure enough, he went around and he did that in 2025 with one big, beautiful bill. So there is precedence for this sort of thing. Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust. Now, of course, Trump can't just wave a magic wand and make this happen. He's going to have to get Congress to pass a law. Congress, as you recall, has authority over spending matters in the United States of America. Trump's Republicans right now, they control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. So they would be in a position to pass this sort of thing. Of course, there's a lot of hurdles. They could probably get it out of the House pretty easily. Then it goes to the Senate. They usually need cooperation from some Democrats to advance legislation like this. And I can't imagine that any Democrat would sign on to this sort of thing. Why would they when Trump is explicitly saying, if you vote for Republicans, you'll get this money? Now, Republicans could try an end run. They could use special budget rules that would allow them to bypass the Democrats and pass this sort of thing just on a party line vote. They've done that twice of the last couple of years, but it might be difficult to do it for a third time. We're just getting reaction in from now from Congress. Some Republicans are excited about it. Some are remaining mum. I think it's safe to say it would be a pretty uphill climb for Congress to pass this sort of thing.