Trump Keeps Promising Cash on the Campaign Trail—but Has a Poor History of Following Through
U.S.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a midterm campaign rally at Pitt-Greenville Airport in Greenville, N.C., on Oct.
20, 2026. —Kent Nishimura—AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump is throwing money at the midterms in more ways than one.
On the campaign trail this year, the U.S.
President, beleaguered by low approval ratings just weeks before the November election, has promised voters a number of financial benefits in hope of retaining Republicans ’ majorities in Congress.
At a Kansas rally on Monday, Trump announced that the Administration is offering an $8 billion aid package to help American farmers offset higher diesel costs in the current harvest season.
Diesel has remained above $6 per gallon since mid-September , per the American Automobile Association, as oil prices have been pushed up by the war with Iran , which Trump started in late February.
Some rural voters , who helped elect Trump in 2024, have grown disillusioned with him, but he continued to court them in Kansas, adding: “When the Republicans win, we will pass even more funding for our farmers.
We love our farmers.” Several opinion polls show that rising costs of living are top of mind for voters ahead of the elections.
Some polls rate the President’s handling of the U.S. economy as very poor.
Disenchantment with the current political and economic system has also reached a point where socialism has grown more popular among Americans .
Trump’s efforts to woo voters with offers of cash gained attention in September, when he explicitly promised a Dallas crowd that his Administration would dole out a $5,000 dividend to every American adult if the GOP maintains its majorities in Congress.
But with about 240 million adult citizens, the proposal would cost around $1.2 trillion—a gargantuan financial undertaking that even some in his own party questioned how the U.S. could afford.
Democrats, meanwhile, called the dividend proposal a vote-buying scheme.
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