Media Must Call Trump's $5,000 Promise the Bribe It Is

Trump's approval rating just hit 33 percent. He is 52 points underwater with independents on the economy. With the midterms approaching and his party in freefall, he announced a promise to send every American $5,000 — but only if Republicans keep Congress. Fox News anchors noted he's made empty cash promises before. Bret Baier pointed out it would cost $1.3 trillion. Laura Ingraham asked the obvious question: why not send the money now?

The answer is simple. He can't — and he knows it. This is not a policy proposal. It is a naked attempt to use the promise of federal money to influence an election outcome, dangled like a carrot by a president who has spent this term gutting the programs that actually help working Americans. The same administration slashing Medicaid is now promising everyone $5,000 if they vote the right way.

We call on the media to cover Trump's $5,000 promise not as a political story about messaging or strategy, but as what it plainly is: an attempted bribe of the American electorate with money that doesn't exist, from a president whose own approval numbers reveal that voters have already figured out he cannot be trusted. The public deserves reporting that calls a desperate lie a desperate lie — before November, not after.