A week before the midterm elections, with voter concerns about affordability dominating, President Donald Trump joked that the $5,000 payments he promised American adults at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago club would only buy them “a hamburger and maybe a small dessert.”
President Trump has promised to provide $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans win both houses of Congress, specifying that the money must be spent within the United States.
“Go to Florida, go to any of our great places. You can come to Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said Tuesday at a rally in Texas. “The problem is, $5,000 can only buy you a hamburger and maybe a small dessert.”
The president also joked, “I don’t even know if you can afford it. No, don’t go there. It’s not a good place for people who are price conscious.”
The cost of living is a key issue heading into the Nov. 3 vote, with 84% of American adults surveyed in an AP-NORC poll earlier this month saying it was one of the most important issues when deciding to vote, and 79% disapproving of President Trump’s response. Opinion polls widely show that Democrats hold the national popular vote in the House of Representatives and will be competitive in a series of red-state Senate races that will determine control of the Senate.
Some economists have warned that one-time direct payments would do little to ease affordability pressures and could worsen inflation at a time when many Americans are already feeling the strain. The prices of necessities like gasoline and groceries are a particular concern for most American households.
Sending $5,000 to every adult citizen would cost about $1.2 trillion and would require Congressional approval.
The president has made similar promises to provide cash payments to Americans in the past, but they have not materialized. Less than two months before the 2020 election, President Trump promised to provide $200 prescription drug cards to 33 million Medicare beneficiaries “within weeks,” but the cards were never issued.
The president’s renovation of the White House also became a centerpiece of the campaign. Speaking at a rally in Ohio last week, former President Barack Obama said Trump was “making the White House like Saddam Hussein opening a cheesecake factory” and that “money is everywhere.”
President Trump on Monday defended his redesign of the White House and criticized President Obama for failing to tackle necessary renovations. “People like Obama don’t see it. They don’t see the dirt. They don’t see the filth. They don’t see the broken decorations on the building…and when you say it’s a cheesecake factory, it just shows why you’ve been a terrible president.”
—CNBC’s Davis Giangiulo and Dan Mangan contributed to this article.
