It’s still illegal; it’s just that nobody will enforce the law against the orange bastard. The motherfucker was literally convicted of 34 felonies and hasn’t paid any fines or faced a minute of jail time, FFS.
He had a whole goddamn sentencing hearing where they sentenced him to nothing. Explicitly.
Was it illegal for Bernie Sanders to campaign on free medical and college?
Rather than tilt and rave let’s approach this from another angle: Trump promised funds from DOGE and balanced budgets on multiple occasions and you’re never going to see any of it. He is a liar.
Was it illegal for Bernie Sanders to campaign on free medical and college?
No because that would have been done through normal policy change and actually a thing an elected official should try and do. What is going on in the question (even if it is a lie) is bribery. It’s not even remotely the same, and it speaks volumes of your character that you would even try and equate them.
Trump’s and Bernie’s plans would both require congress because the president literally has no access to funds without it.
I worry about people spreading these lies because it is in fact a great policy stance.
If it’s a great policy stance, they should do it now when they know they have control of both legislatures. Why wait?
So you think promising money he’ll never give out is a “great policy stance”? Huh???
giving out money is a great policy
voting for Trump or believing anything he says is idiocy
I hate the orange turd but your comparison is not 100% right. He’d gift 5000$ to everyone, not just who voted for him. I think that’s still illegal tho
I hate the orange turd and your observation is about 100% wrong. He will not pay anyone. He will keep the money himself.
I didn’t mean he’d give a dime to anybody given the fact that he’s a pathological liar but he didn’t say “I will give 5000$ to those who vote for me” but “I will give 5000$ to everyone”. And since I’m not a lawyer I don’t know if that’s illegal to say, as opposed to give “gifts” to only those who vote for a certain party
They are two very different things.
In one case you’re handing people real money on the street for their vote.
In the other your making a “campaign promise” that everyone knows isn’t actually real.Question from far away: do even the basic, illiterate, red-capped MAGAts not believe it? Or is the fanbase waiting for its manna?
Believe it’s true literally?
NoIt’s a concept known as Kayfabe. A special kind of pretending, where both performer and audience act as if something is real, when both know it isn’t. It started with American professional wrestling. Wrestlers would do interviews, even greet fans after the show and sign autographs as their characters, not as themselves.
So no, even his MAGA supporters don’t literally believe he’ll give them $5k. They just accept is as a promise that he and the Republicans will do good things for them generally. They like the sound of it, even though they know it’s not “real”.
The way my kid kept pretending to believe in Santa for two years. I saw her point then. Thank you.
I think they know Trump is full of shit, they just don’t care so long as he’s ‘hurting the right people’.
They’d let Trump shit in their mouth if it meant a ‘librul’ would have to smell it.
Yeah. Well. Thanks. It’s so absurd my mind reels thinking about it.
Americans refuse to apply the law to trump for some reason
Edit: Y’all acting like he’s been POTUS his whole life. Dude is a career conman-rapist-fraudster
there’s a major error in that the president, according to legal experts, can’t be arrested by anyone but congress and the house, which makes no sense. he should simply be president from a prison at this point.
No. It’s just moronic to argue that this is or should be illegal. For fuck’s sake, people in this thread are arguing it should be illegal for politicians for run for office promising to establish new government programs or give people money. They’re letting their campist impulses cloud their judgment.
it’s very different to say ‘‘I’ll extend medicade to all’’ vs ‘‘if I win this election I’ll cut you a literal check’’ there are different meanings here.
That’s not what he’s promising though. He’s promising to have a stimulus check passed through Congress. He’s not promising to personally write checks out of his own bank account.
This isn’t that complicated. The federal government has provided direct cash benefits across a myriad of times and circumstances. (Temporary assistance to needy families, farm subsidies, stimulus checks in several administrations, social security payments, etc.) These are all perfectly legal. And it’s perfectly legal to run for office promising to enact or expand such programs.
Plenty of what Trump does is illegal. This isn’t one of those time. It’s perfectly legal to run for office or campaign for your party saying, “I think people need money. If our side wins, we’ll give everyone a check.” Whether it’s good policy or not is another question. But the legality of it isn’t even debatable.
It’s hilarious that everyone here is assuming he’s not just straight up lying about giving that money to everyone and not just the people who vote Republican.
They are very interested in state voter information.
That’s the secret to Conservative power in America.
Step 1: Make everything illegal
Step 2: Accept bribes to overlook crimes of allies
Step 3: Punish the shit out of your opponents.
Congrats! America is now Russia, with better food and shittier fascists.
No, it’s not legal, but at this point there are no federal officials left who are willing to enforce the law when Republicans break it.
Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: ‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.’
He’s been doing multiple crimes a day for most of his life. The thing about a “law” is that unless it’s enforced it doesn’t mean shit
Also if you have sex with a minor is illegal but if you are the President then it’s OK.
It’s also legal to give someone money after the fact for a job well done, and it’s definitely not a bribe.
From June 26 2024:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a federal anti-bribery law does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts that they have already taken.
Yes, but dipshit in chief is lying to you, but hypothetically it would be legal.
If the 5k were reliant on you voting for hin and not somebody else then that could be illegal, but his lie was that everyone would get the 5k just like he previously lied about 2k stimulus on multiple occasions.
But he is lying.
Biden promised to wipe out student debt and by god he tried it on three or more occasions. Is that illegal? Was it illegal for Bernie Sanders to campaign for free college and medical?
But Trump is lying to you.
Saying “I’ll increase quality of life” is not the same as “I’ll give you cash” the first is a normal political promise and the second is a scammer. What everyone else has said and done is not to be compared to this trash bribery. You are right that trump is full of shit but very wrong with your shit both sides argument.
is there any rule that say a president cant scam the people?
They won’t even let you stand outside a polling place and hand out water bottles to people waiting in line.
This is what tips me over the edge, all in on maga now. I’m surely gonna collect the 5k from the dude famous for stiffing contractors and bankrupting casinos
Technically, the equivalent would be you standing outside a polling place with a sign saying “I will give every adult in the area $500 if Candidate X wins”.
Ostensibly, you could just be lying (just like Trump) - and that would probably be covered under your 1st Amendment rights.
It’s stupid, but there is enough of a disconnect between action and reward that it might skirt past.
No, that’s not how that works.
18 U.S.C. § 597 - U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 597.
Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and
Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
That seems pretty straightforward. So the law is correct, it’s just useless because the system founded on these laws is broken.
I didn’t realize Ayn Rand’s ghost had a lemmy account.
This isn’t broken at all. Unless you think every form of government social spending should be illegal, then you shouldn’t try to make it a felony for politicians to run for office promising to establish government programs or give people money through acts of Congress. You’re advocating for full on libertarianism.
I think you are confusing paying someone a direct bribe for their vote, with infrastructure spending. When you say it isn’t broken at all, are you saying that an imperfect dystopia based on power and money is the utopian goal that we all seek? I say a lot is working, but a lot is broken. When you say ‘not broken at all’ then I cannot believe you have a good understanding of the societal wherewithal.
You need to work on your reading comprehension.
Well…there is no way I can defend against an argument like that.
It would be pointless. Your reading skills are not developed enough to merit a proper reply.
The law only matters to us poor folks. It isn’t applied to the rich.
