Trump administration mails $500 checks and announces $90 Medicare checks before midterms

Ellen Allen received a $500 check from the U.S. Treasury and a letter from President Trump at her home near Charleston, W.Va., on Monday, NPR reported. She said that in her opinion sending out the checks is a "political stunt." Allen is executive director of a small nonprofit called West Virginians for Affordable Health Care and paid $1,967 a month for ACA insurance premiums from January through August 2026, NPR reported.

NPR reported that the $500 checks went only to people living in one of the 30 states that use Healthcare.gov and earning more than $64,000 a year as an individual, which is too much to qualify for subsidies. Trump announced the $90 checks last week for 20 million people enrolled in Medicare, according to NPR. The $90 checks will go only to certain people enrolled in Medicare Part B, and people in Medicare Advantage plans will not receive them, NPR reported. The checks are reaching mailboxes a few weeks before the midterm elections on 3 November.

NPR reported that the letter sent with the money touts the Trump administration's health policy efforts and criticizes the Biden administration. Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal and governmental ethics at Washington University law school in St. Louis, told NPR: "This reads like electioneering." She said it reads as though it is intended to influence votes and that this is prohibited by law. She said it would violate the Hatch Act, the statute that prohibits using federal power and money to influence partisan political elections.

Ads marked "paid for by the US government" ran in September between programs such as Saturday Night Live and football games, DW reported. Al Jazeera described three ads, including one in which Trump heralds a new "golden age of America" and one in which he warns of a "final battle" against the "deep state." Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the ads are "a positive promotion for our great USA" paid for with "USA money," and said future ads would be paid with money raised from donations, according to DW. DW reported that CBS said, citing contracting records, that the Department of Homeland Security paid an agency $20 million for a "national media campaign."

Public Citizen said the "rather standard" practice Trump referred to applies to public service announcements, not these ads, DW reported. Patrick Malone, a professor at American University in Washington DC, told DW: "You're not supposed to use taxpayer dollars to pay for anything that's campaign-related." Al Jazeera reported that Democratic lawmakers said the White House transferred $20m in Department of Homeland Security funds to pay for the campaign and called for independent investigations. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last month: "It shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars," and Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told the Associated Press: "You watch all three ads; they're sheer propaganda."

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found voters aged 50 or older preferred Trump's party over the Democratic Party by 2 percentage points, 44% to 42%, down from an 8-point Republican advantage in December, DW reported. Among voters under 50, Democrats led by 18 points, and 32% of Americans approved of Trump's presidency, according to the poll. Republicans hold 53 of 100 Senate seats and 219 of 435 House seats, DW reported. On 3 November, voters will cast ballots for all House seats, roughly a third of Senate seats, and some governorships.