It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.
But this was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy – dissent in his own Republican ranks and the Jeffrey Epstein files looming on Friday.
The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful nemeses for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.
Weren’t tariff dividends meant to be sent to every American below certain income? So now he’s just trying to bribe the military, because fuck those civilians protesting against him.
So now we’re up to:
And of course the true amount of the $8,776 people will see…. $0
Maybe someone explained to him that there wasn’t enough money for the previous plan. Or maybe he doesn’t remember there was a previous plan.
Or it’s even more simple than that, and he was just straight lying about the previous plan.
Why not both?
Last I understood as of like a week ago, they are no longer sending a straight check for $2k but instead the money will be given to you in the form of a tax refund. Which sounds to me like just a perfect way to do nothing and then say you sent it to everyone. Then when no one sees any difference just tell them they owed more taxes than they thought or filed wrong or whatever. But call me a negative Nancy I guess 🤷
Keep the ones happy who will enforce national gestapo and an at-home war on dissenters. That’s what this is. A bribe.
That may be the plan, but that amount of money is not significant to even the poor for more than perhaps a month or so.
A bribe is a transaction–I pay you this, and you let me get away with that. If I want to continue getting away with things, I have to continue to pay, since I am the one continually putting myself in a compromising position. The second I stop paying, the ride ends.
Also, promising payments at some point in the future may fool 3rd party onlookers into thinking you’re helping them out, but I can’t imagine the people who were promised the money are going to just not notice that they were welched on, even if they love the person that stiffed them.