Your check for $5,000 is not in the mail

President Trump is not the first to dangle a tempting reward before people to get them to vote.

In the early 1990s, the California Democratic Party made a deal with Krispy Kreme: a free dozen donuts for anyone who walked in wearing an “I Voted” sticker. You voted, you qualified for a dozen donuts — no questions asked. I know all about it, because at that time I was chair of the state Democratic Party.

But that’s a far cry from what Trump has proposed. Unlike Trump, we didn’t offer free donuts only to those who voted Democrat, or only if Democrats won the election. And there was no cash involved.

What Trump proposed on the first night of last week’s midterm convention in Dallas is close to a pure bribe. It was like Oprah Winfrey, telling everyone in the audience to look under their seat for keys to a new Pontiac G6 — except Oprah delivered. There is no guarantee that Trump would.

“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump promised his audience of MAGA Republicans in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.” But of course, like everything else Trump does, it comes with strings attached: “We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money,” he said.

While Trump’s proposal may technically be legal — amounting to nothing more than another questionable campaign........

© The Hill