Trump Says $90 Checks Are Going to 20M on Medicare

With the midterms a month away, President Trump is again promising to send money to Americans. In a late-night Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said his administration will immediately start sending about $90 to more than 20 million Medicare beneficiaries to help cover Part B premiums. The payments would be funded by what he called the Medicare Improvement Fund, a $2 billion account he labeled a "pointless 'Slush Fund'" used by Democrats. Whether the White House can legally redirect that money, USA Today reports, remains uncertain. Neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services, which handles the fund, responded to questions about the authority to redistribute that money, per the Washington Post.

"This is another desperate attempt by a failed president to escape Americans' revulsion with his failed agenda, amounting to one tank of Trump-inflated gas," said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, his party's top member of the Finance Committee, which also has an oversight role. Trump renewed his promise to send $5,000 to every US adult "if, and when, the Republicans win" the midterms, a payment that Democrats and some Republicans say sounds a lot like a bribe. Trump's follow-through on past giveaways has been uneven, per USA Today: About 1.45 million service members got $1,776 "warrior dividend" checks, but Americans never saw the promised $2,000 "tariff dividend" or savings checks from the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump posted that a $90 check should reassure Americans that he'll come through with the $5,000 one.