Speaker Mike Johnson reacted Donald Trump’s promise to send Americans a $5,000 check if they protected Republican majorities in Congress during the upcoming midterm elections.
According to The Independent, the speaker’s refusal to guarantee that such a measure could pass a Republican House and Senate was just one more sign that Trump’s latest Hail Mary was falling flat on Capitol Hill.
Johnson was on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, September 13, to discuss the proposal, which Trump made at last week’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas, Texas.
The president told a cheering crowd of his supporters and Republican officials that every American adult would receive a one-time payment of $5,000 called the “Trump Dividend” if Republicans held both chambers of Congress in November, a promise that was immediately ripped as a bribe by his detractors online and in the media.
Johnson told NBC’s Kristen Welker, “I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that, like I have to do everything else. I never go out and give big commitments on the front end because I’ve got to work through it, and that’s what we do every single day.”
“President Trump promised that to voters, though,” said moderator. “You’re not willing to double down on that promise?”
Johnson replied, “I’ll work with the president hand in hand, as I do all the time, and we’ll deliver for the American people. That’s the promise.”
Republicans currently control 53 seats in the Senate and a razor-thin margin in the House of Representatives, and have struggled to pass substantial legislation outside of the budget reconciliation framework.
