With US midterm elections looming, President Donald Trump and Republican leaders are making a last-minute push to energize voters—this time by promising US$5,000 payments to every American if their party prevails.
Trump has made headlines by pledging US$5,000 direct payments to all Americans, framing it as a key motivation to vote Republican in Tuesday’s contests.
"We're going to win," he told the crowd in Iowa, painting Democrats as "extreme and dangerous radicals" who will "steal your wealth" and let in migrants to "ransack, rape and plunder."
But polls show Americans have soured on Trump's wrecking-ball presidency. An NBC News poll released Sunday showed 60 percent disapprove of Trump's performance, particularly over high prices exacerbated by his now eight-month, sputtering war against Iran.
Polls show Democrats are all but certain to take the majority from Republicans in the House of Representatives in Tuesday's vote and have a real shot at winning the Senate.
However, after a decade of Trump defying political gravity and two years of a second presidency in which he has ridden roughshod over every norm, Democrats remain nervous. "Nauseously optimistic," Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN to describe the mood.
(Staff reporter and AFP)
