Sky York Journal
President Donald Trump has been sending checks to millions of Americans ahead of the midterms, seemingly in an effort to encourage voters to forget Republicans’ recent destructive actions making healthcare harder to access and afford.
TPM reported on the two recent schemes — one of which experts told us was “legally dubious” — from the Trump administration last week. The funds eligible Americans are receiving have been coming with messages from Trump, where he claims the money is meant to help with healthcare costs for Medicare Part B enrollees and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace enrollees who do not receive premium assistance.
Natasha Murphy, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, told TPM last week that she thinks the checks are “the latest and greatest attempt of the administration to kind of save face ahead of the election and try and shift the narrative away from the unfortunate reality that they have spent the past two years dismantling every aspect of our healthcare system.”
Posts on social media and emails to TPM suggest that many across the country who have been receiving the money, through checks from the Internal Revenue Services or a direct deposit into their bank accounts, seem to agree with that analysis. And a growing number have found a clever way to make use of it.
A Greensboro, North Carolina named Brigid said that she and her husband, Bernie, both donated the $90 they received from the Trump administration to local charities.
Brigid gave hers to Greensboro’s New Arrivals Institute — an organization assisting refugees and immigrants with self-sufficiency and US Citizenship through education — and Bernie gave his to Greensboro’s Interactive Resource Center — an organization that aims to end homelessness by creating a safe space for people and connecting them to important services, she told me.
“Many of us are choosing to donate his ridiculous bribe to charitable causes or political parties that stand for everything he doesn’t,” Brigid said, referring to Trump.
Odie, an Arizonan, told TPM he chose to share the money he received with Keys to Change, a Phoenix-based nonprofit that works to end homelessness through prevention, intervention, and increased access to housing.
Nancy, a Bluesky user with the handle @bulldykechinashop, said she donated her check to a mutual aid fund for a trans woman.
Then there are others who decided the money the Trump administration is sending over right before the midterms may in fact be best used trying to defeat the president’s party.
A Bluesky user with the handle @jon-barwise said he donated the money he received to the States Project, which works to build Democratic majorities and shift power in state legislatures, especially those in red states.
Julie, another Bluesky user with the handle @juliemeredith, said her 92-year-old mother used her money to contribute to Roy Cooper’s U.S. Senate campaign. Jessie Mitchell, handle @jessiemitchell, commented, “Since it’s tainted money we thought the only moral recourse was to donate it to Janelle Stelson’s campaign for PA-10.” Stetson is running against staunch MAGA congressman Scott Perry (R-PA).
And Eric Carlson, using the handle @alaskansan, said he donated his “own $90 to Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton’s campaign for US Senator from Kansas.”
“Not selling my vote,” he added in his social media post.
