Fact Check: Did Trump offer $5000 each to Supreme Court judges to change mail-in voting?
WASHINGTON, DC: Ahead of the much-anticipated midterm elections in November, a rumor began circulating on social media platforms claiming that President Donald Trump offered $5000 each to the Supreme Court justices to change the blocking of the USPS mail-in ballot rule in full. The claim has sparked speculation and mockery, calling for verification of the rumor.
Claim: Donald Trump offered $5000 to Supreme Court
According to a viral post that appeared on Facebook, Trump offered the Supreme Court justices $5000 each to change the mail-in voting decision.
The post has spread on other social media handles such as X, Instagram, and Threads, collectively garnering hundreds of thousands of likes.
The claim drew mostly mockery and criticism against the president, with many accusing Trump of openly offering bribes to the judges, suggesting that many believe the claim to be authentic, while a few others questioned its authenticity and called for a fact check.
Fact Check: The claim originated as satire
The claim, however, is false, as there is no evidence suggesting that Trump offered money to Supreme Court justices to change the blocking of mail-in-ballot rule.
If Trump has really offered money to the judges, prominent news media outlets would have widely covered it, making headlines, but a search on Google revealed that no such publicly available reports exist to prove the claim.
Moreover, the claim was posted by the Facebook page of ‘The Borowitz Report’, an online satirical newspaper which describes itself in the bio as ‘Comedian.’
Hence, the claim is a parody based on Trump’s proposal of $5000 to every American adult if Republicans won the midterms.
"Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our tremendous economic success, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000," he said.
Judge blocks USPS mail-in-ballot rule
The claim surfaced after a federal judge appointed by Trump blocked the US Postal Service's new mail-in ballots rule in its entirety, marking another setback to the administration's effort to impose new federal requirements on states ahead of the elections.
District Judge Carl Nichols issued a preliminary injunction on Sunday, September 13, allowing some provisions to remain in place while others were blocked would create "even more confusion and misunderstanding" and lead to delays and mistakes.
"The Postal Service could issue (and enforce) the Rule only if Congress gave it the authority to do so," he wrote.
