Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.
The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.
These things are not analogous. Trump isn’t saying “vote for me and if I win I’ll use my newly invested powers to give you xyz”.
He’s saying “vote for my friends and I’ll use the power I already have to give you xyz”.
There’s definitely a difference, the second being much more coercive. Imagine if instead he threatened to send people to fight in Iran if republicans didn’t win the midterms. Whether this is illegal I don’t know, but it should be.
It’s also much weaker rhetorically. You can’t say “I haven’t given you the $5k yet because I didn’t have power before”.
I’ve already heard lawyers chiming in and saying it isn’t technically illegal.
But yeah, theres a lot of things that should be illegal.