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About That $5000 Check

Another half-baked plan that was not well thought out

4 min readApr 29, 2025
Photo by Denio Rodríguez on Unsplash

I have heard a lot of dumb ideas come out of Donald Trump’s mouth in the past few years, but his recent proposal to give $5000 to anyone who has a baby has to be one of the dumbest. If I thought he was serious, I might be alarmed, but I don’t think he is. Trump does have a penchant for saying just about anything to get his name in the news one more time.

If he is good at anything, that is it.

Let’s admit it. Getting money from the government sounds good to most of us, and the promise of it certainly gets our attention. I loved getting my COVID stimulus check as much as anyone, and 30 years ago, when my then-governor Jesse Ventura dished out $1000 tax rebates, I spent mine without giving it a second thought.

Free money is fun, and the promise of it gets people excited.

Like so many of Trump’s ideas, though, this one too sounds good on the surface but is saturated with problems. Let’s take a look.

When Donald Trump first came up with this idea, I will bet you anything he pictured the recipients as a white, married couple with a reasonable income and an inclination to vote Republican, especially if he was the candidate. Granted, there are a lot of white, married couples who vote Republican who…

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John Egelkrout
John Egelkrout

Written by John Egelkrout

I am a sanity-curious former teacher who writes about social issues, memoirs, and other topics. Follow me on Substack at johnegelkrout.substack.com/subscribe

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