President Donald Trump made yet another promise of direct payments to citizens in the run-up to the midterm elections, as polls show waning support for the president and Republican candidates.
Trump said late Friday that his administration will send $90 Medicare checks to more than 20 million seniors. In the same post, he promised a much larger payment — $5,000 — to every adult if Republicans win the midterm elections.
"I am pleased to announce that my Administration will, immediately, begin sending 'Checks' of nearly $100 to over 20 MILLION wonderful Seniors to help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums," Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Because I delivered on this very important issue for the American People, they can also rest assured the highly popular $5,000 Trump Dividend will be distributed to every U.S. Citizen if, and when, the Republicans win the Midterm Elections!”
The post led a 15-post overnight spree that mixed promises of payments with rote attacks on the media, the DSA, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
A White House fact sheet on the $90 payments says most will arrive by direct deposit in "early October," with mailed checks for people without direct deposit. People whose premiums are paid by Medicaid are excluded, as are higher-income Medicare beneficiaries who pay an income-related surcharge.
The money is being drawn from a $2 billion pool in the Medicare Improvement Fund. Trump called the fund "pointless” and a “slush fund." The Congressional Budget Office says the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have never spent money from the fund, which was created to improve traditional Medicare.
Fewer details are available about the $5,000 payment. House Speaker Mike Johnson said last month that he believed Congress would have to approve it. The Tax Foundation estimated that a $5,000-per-person dividend would cost about $1.25 trillion.
In another post, Trump called unspecified “fake news reports” about the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation investigation “total lies.” He said the project is “Hundreds of Millions of Dollars over budget, and way behind schedule, due to a total lack of leadership, oversight, and competence, of Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell.” The post claimed that Attorney General Todd Blanche had “clearly stated that the Justice Department will investigate any and all evidence of wrongdoing.”
But Blanche has said the department did not intend to reopen a criminal investigation into Powell. A judge quashed earlier grand jury subpoenas in the Powell probe in March, finding “essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”