If there\u2019s anything I appreciate about President Donald Trump, it\u2019s how he\u2019s held up a perverse mirror to what government fundamentally boils down to: power, money,\u00a0 manipulation, awarding one\u2019s friends and punishing one\u2019s enemies. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s cut through all of the usual pretenses and made the United States federal government a total farce of itself. Every now and then when I remember Oprah-era snake oil salesman Dr. Oz is the head of a federal department, I have to pinch myself. Ditto when I remember Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0 is not only beloved by Republicans but is doing his best to bring malaria back as head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It\u2019s the ultimate cynic\u2019s dream, really.<\/p>\n
In this context, then, Trump\u2019s recent pitch to the American people that if Republicans hold the House and Senate, they will be rewarded with a $5,000 check is par for the course.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we\u2019ve done so well, and because our country is making so much money, only I can make this promise to you, and here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate\u2026 I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,\u201d\u00a0 he said at the Republican convention in Dallas, Texas this past week. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite a glimpse into the mind of the president and the fantasy land he\u2019s creating. <\/p>\n
The official White House website now features a page about the \u201cTrump Dividend,\u201d with the warning that, \u201cDemocrats will not deliver a dividend, they will deliver the opposite \u2014 higher taxes, open borders, and the same failed communist agenda that makes American families poorer and punishes the people who work the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, the Republican president of the United States is making the case that if the Democrats win, communism will come to America and stop the president from doling out $5,000 checks to Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ignore, of course, the irony of a politician offering a government check and then having the audacity to call the other side communists because they might stop him from doing it.<\/p>\n
Ignore also the odd discrepancy between the standard Republican\u00a0 lament about election integrity and the appearance of a president essentially trying to buy votes. <\/p>\n
It calls to mind stories from the former Soviet republic of Georgia in which politicians have been accused of buying votes with \u201cpotatoes and onions.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s all very un-American in some fleeting idealistic sense where norms are supposed to check against such shameful acts. But then again, all of politics is a grand vote-buying and money-moving scheme.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just about how you dress up and funnel the money: tax cuts, tax hikes, budget priorities, government programs, nudging the Fed to play games with the money supply. It\u2019s all about patronage and whatever cronyism you can get away with. <\/p>\n
So, Trump\u2019s offense in that sense is just being really tacky and unsophisticated about how he\u2019s trying to buy votes. Smarter Republicans in the past just said they\u2019d cut taxes as their roundabout way of buying votes. But Trump now thinks he must go straight for check-cutting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be fair to him, he has every reason to say whatever it takes to hold onto majorities in Congress. He\u2019s made it this far spouting nonsense, and as he enters his lame-duck years, he knows he won\u2019t have half as much fun with a hostile Congress.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like he can run on his amazing economic record. It turns out tearing up trade agreements, turning the Strait of Hormuz into a warzone and racking up a $2 trillion deficit is a recipe for persistently high inflation. Who could\u2019ve guessed?<\/p>\n
At least some Republicans have pushed back against Trump\u2019s idea, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who noted, appropriately, that it \u201cwill lead to more debt and more inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the questions now: just how gullible are American voters, and when will more Republicans realize they\u2019re being made fools of?<\/p>\n
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s anything I appreciate about President Donald Trump, it\u2019s how he\u2019s held up a perverse mirror to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[975,2082,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-462829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}