WHY IS TRUMPS $5,000 OFFER TO VOTERS ‘LIKE A WOMAN‘? ASK FOX NEWS.

By Guardian - Arwa Mahdawi - Sat 12 Sep 2026 13.00 BST

Host Jesse Watters says Trump’s offer to Americans if Republicans retain Congress is ‘an enticement’, not a bribe. I think I finally understand why Fox News pays Jesse Watters the big bucks.

The network star, famous for hot takes like men shouldn’t “eat soup in public”, has an incredible talent for inserting misogyny into absolutely any news story.

Take, for example, Donald Trump’s ludicrous announcement on Wednesday night that he will give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the US Congress in November’s midterm election. That’s a story about apparent bribery, right? A story about fiscal recklessness and empty promises. A story about how the president, whose popularity is plummeting, is so out of ideas that he’s resorted (yet again) to dangling cash in front of voters.

Actually, says Watters, it’s none of the above; it’s just Trump behaving like a woman.

“That $5,000 check, Dana, that’s not a bribe,” Watters told Fox anchor Dana Perino on Thursday. “We’re calling it an enticement … It’s like a woman. Sometimes a woman can entice you, OK? Maybe – it doesn’t mean you’re going home with her, but it keeps you interested. It keeps you intrigued and wanting more. That’s what this is about.”

Perhaps the Fox News host isn’t completely wrong. After all, I am a woman and I am about to entice you to look up the story about how Watters courted his much younger second wife. It’s very intriguing.

But back to this definitely-not-a-bribe $5,000 payment which the president calls a Trump “dividend”. I wouldn’t start spending it now, if I were you. The president, like his right-hand man Elon Musk, has a habit of making grandiose promises he doesn’t keep. Remember the Doge dividends floated last February? Those haven’t materialized. Nor have the tariff dividends that Trump made so much noise about. “People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!” Trump said in a Truth Social post last year. “We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and … A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.” Almost a year after that post, nobody has received a tariff dividend. However, it has been estimated by the Joint Economic Committee – Minority that the average American family will pay more than $2,500 in tariff costs this year.

I feel pretty confident saying there is a 0.00001% chance that anyone is going to get a $5,000 Republican celebration check. But let’s just play along for a minute and pretend that Trump isn’t a fabulist. Let’s pretend that the president is a serious man who makes thoughtful policy proposals, rather than an opportunist who says whatever inane thing happens to pop into his brain in the moment. Isn’t it a bit reckless to be giving all this money away, a total that exceeds $1tn, when the US national debt recently surpassed $40tn for the first time? As Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement, that debt “doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers”, it is shouldered by everyone. “The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad.”

Don’t worry about all that, says the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick. “It’s not tax money,” Lutnick told NBC News on Thursday. The Trump administration is going to earn that money from various moneymaking endeavours like the Trump Platinum Card, which allows wealthy people to pay up to $5m to extend their US visas. JD Vance, meanwhile, has suggested that the money might come from US tariff revenues, even though economists have pointed out the $125bn in tariff revenues wouldn’t come close to covering the costs.

The president himself, meanwhile, doesn’t seem keen to elaborate on his cunning plan to win friends and influence voters. When the ABC reporter Rachel Scott asked him about the rationale behind the $5,000 checks on Thursday night, he said it was a reward to Americans for putting up with Joe Biden. After Scott tried to ask a follow-up question, Trump lunged at her and said: “Your network … you’re the worst.” Which is very on-brand for the president. He can’t seem to handle being asked tough questions by anyone, but gets particularly nasty when those questions are posed by a woman.

While Trump doesn’t want to get into the details of his dividend, the proposal reflects how the president is looking at some very unconventional ways to sway the midterms. He may not end up issuing people celebration checks, but he has already gutted election security programs and attempted to limit voting access. The real story here isn’t $5,000 cheques, it’s the fact that America’s self-styled king seems intent on meddling with the election, and no meaningful checks and balances are stopping him.

Arwa Mahdawi - Guardian