Donald Trump this week, once again, dangled his $5,000 bribe for voters, provided they let Republicans win the mid-term election. In his sick mind, Trump believes that the American people are just as corruptible and lawless as he is, willing to be bought for 5,000 foul-smelling smackers.
Bribery has been used by corrupt political bosses and big-time crooks to buy votes and sway election results for more than a century. Trump shares company with corrupt political operatives from Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall in New York in the late 19th century to Tom Pendergast in Missouri from 1910-1940, who launched Harry Truman’s political career.
Big-time crime bosses such as Al Capone, Sam Giacono, and John Gotti also used bribery and intimidation to get officials elected who would do their bidding. Of course, Trump doesn’t rate as a big-time crook, being but a piddling one-time convicted felon. However, he shares such criminals’ utter disdain for the law, a gross immorality, and a criminal obsession with getting what he wants, such as attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and destroy American democracy.
Trump’s attempt to buy votes for the midterm election is clearly illegal under federal law that prohibits “expenditures to influence voting,” the crime of buying or selling votes. It is a federal crime to “make or offer money, goods, services, or any other thing of value to someone to vote, withhold a vote, or vote for or against a candidate.” The violation can cost the perpetrator up to two years in federal prison, a substantial fine, or both.
The law goes further, however. It is also unlawful for a person to accept or receive such an expenditure in consideration of the person’s vote or decision not to vote. It’s as unlawful to accept the expenditure to buy a person’s vote as it is to solicit it and equally punishable.
If a person votes for Republican candidates for the purpose of receiving Trump’s $5,000 bribe, he or she could very well be violating the law according to federal statute 18 U.S. Code § 597.
Of course, if Republicans hold their congressional majorities in the midterms and Trump actually sends out $5,000 checks, millions of check recipients who keep the money would never be prosecuted. Their only punishment depends on how much weight their conscience could bear.
Trump also would never be punished for soliciting the bribe, a crime which has already occurred whether he pays or not. He skates through on his presidential immunity and can’t be indicted and convicted of a crime while in office. Once out of office, he could be indicted, but the chances are slim and nil.
Despite Trump’s offer of filthy lucre, the chances of anyone ever receiving the $5,000 bribe is remote. Three times previously, Trump has suggested that the government would send out checks to Americans: the $5,000 DOGE dividend, the $2,000 rebate checks from the tariff revenue, and the $1,000 to $1,500 annual checks to citizens’ Health Saving Accounts. No checks were ever sent.
Besides, what incentive would Trump have to send out his $5,000 bribe money if Republicans do retain their majorities? He would have accomplished what he wanted without spending more than $1 trillion on bribes. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four times, shame on me.
In addition, any federal expenditure such as the projected $1 trillion in bribe money would have to be approved by both houses of Congress. It’s hard to believe that after the election, even craven Republican House and Senate members would agree to fund the checks, essentially admitting that Trump’s bribes bought their elections while blowing another hole in the massive federal debt. There must be a limit to how much soul-crushing humiliation even they can endure.
Perhaps the biggest question is how many people would actually take a $5,000 bribe to give Trump the limitless power that a Republican congressional majority coupled with a pliable Supreme Court majority would allow him for two more years.
This is, after all, the president who has put the economy in a dumpster and raised prices dramatically on every American family through his ongoing tariff scheme and illegal war in Iran. If given two more years of unchecked power, how much more could Trump cost American families, publicly admitting that he doesn't even think about their financial situation while prosecuting the war.
Trump’s outrageous, illegal bribery scheme to alter the mid-term election outcome is yet another reason that Democratic candidates must sweep the midterm election. Trump’s bribery attempt is an offense to all Americans who cherish our democracy and who abhor a president who believes that he can buy their votes. It is an insult to every American.