WASHINGTON, D.C. – During the President’s campaign blitz, he’s made a few promises to voters but only if Republicans keep control of congress. Will it be enough to sway voters? A political scientist doesn’t think so.
At the Republican midterm convention in Texas, he promised every adult American to get a five-thousand dollar dividend. At another rally in Kansas, he announced he would launch a new fuel relief program for farmers. At another rally in North Carolina, he promised to settle DOJ claims for Camp Lejeune toxic water victims. But the President said these promises can only happen if Republicans win the midterms.
“It looks desperate for the President to be promising people so much money,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of the graduate political management program at George Washington University. “It’s certainly not illegal to make promises as we saw Joe Biden do this with student loan forgiveness, we saw Kamala Harris do this with promising people they would get assistance in housing but to make it so blatant that only if we win you will get it. It just looks bad and I don’t think a lot of people believe it will come true. The other problem with this strategy with promising people money is that it causes people to look at their own finances and they’re realizing they aren’t doing well and Donald Trump was elected to fix the economy and he hasn’t done that.”
Some members on Capitol Hill said they haven’t seen a plan from the President for where the funds would come from.
The President is already struggling with low polling numbers. We asked if there should be a better strategy for the President and Republicans:
“The problem for Donald Trump is people want to vote against him,” said Dr. Belt. “This is a referendum style election. He’s trying to change it. He’s trying to change it to a choice election by saying the Democrats are going to give you higher taxes, they’re the party of socialism and communism and they will take away your rights. That’s the way he’s doing by pivoting but its unclear this late in the campaign if it will work.”
