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Today, Dr. Don Kettl agreed to stay around and help answer some listener questions.

Tam from Boulder, Colorado, writes:

Trump recently announced that if Republicans win both the House and Senate in the midterms, he will issue a $5,000 check to every American. Speaker Johnson has hinted that the House might be willing to work with him on something like this, though he added, “no promises.”

To me, this sounds uncomfortably close to buying votes, and I must imagine there are legal or ethical boundaries around even suggesting something like this.

So, my question is: Is this kind of promise actually illegal, or does it fall into the category of political messaging that’s technically allowed?

And more importantly, given all the previous financial‑incentive promises, checks, rebates, cryptocurrency ideas, and so on, has any of this been effective politically, or does it mostly fade once the election is over?

We also had time for a bonus question.

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