Hakeem Jeffries has one question after President Donald Trump offered to pay every American $5,000 if Republicans hold the House and Senate: Are you ready for some payback?
The House minority leader and would-be speaker launched a five-figure ad buy to appear across digital platforms and “specifically an NFL-focused audience,” according to a release from the New York Democrat’s team. The ad comes as the Los Angeles Rams will play against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia on Netflix Thursday night, marking the second game of the opening NFL week.
The ad buy also comes against the second night of Trump’s unprecedented midterm Republican convention in Dallas, Texas.
The first night of the convention played parallel to the first game of the NFL season, which was a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and defending champions the Seattle Seahawks.
The Jeffries ad features the president boasting that the United States has entered a “golden age” under his presidency.
“Look around,” Jeffries narrates in the ad. “Grocery prices up. Gas up. Health insurance premiums — up in some cases a thousand dollars or more.”
Jeffries’ ad comes less than two months before the midterm elections in November. Republicans have 218 seats in the House of Representatives while Democrats have 214.
An Economist/YouGov poll showed that Democrats have a seven-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, which determines if voters will pick a generic Democrat or Republican for Congress. Despite criticism from some in his left flank, Jeffries is almost guaranteed to get the gavel should Democrats win back the House.
“No one is entitled to your vote,” Jeffries said. “We’ll work to earn it.”
Polling shows voters increasingly do not trust the president with the cost of living and the rising cost of gas amid the war in Iran, which Jeffries does not highlight in his ad.
The Jeffries ad features Trump with Elon Musk and with leaders from Saudi Arabia while saying that the wealthy have benefited from Trump’s presidency before mentioning the midterm convention.
“Republicans party in Dallas today without a care about your tomorrow,” he said. That's not a golden age. That's a shakedown.”
Trump bragged on Thursday that his midterm convention, an unconventional choice given the president’s party typically loses the majority in a midterm election, beat the first night of NFL football despite no audience metrics being made available.
“It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL,” Trump said early Thursday. “The overall numbers beat the NFL.”
The president also sought to boost enthusiasm for Republicans by promising that if Republicans held the House and Senate, that they would send out a $5,000 check to every adult American citizen.
But it’s not entirely clear if the president could send out the checks unilaterally or if he would do so through an act of Congress. The president saw his approval go up during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when he sent out $1,200 checks and a letter that had his name on them to allow people to pay the bills.
At the same time, increasing demand risks increased inflation at a time when the cost of living is already high.
“A dividend is for profits,” former congresswoman and Concord Action Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux said in a statement.
“We aren't making a profit these days — in fact, the reverse. We're spending $2 trillion more per year than we're bringing in, with a good chunk of that going toward interest payments on our staggering $40 trillion in debt.”
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