President Donald Trump has unveiled a $700 healthcare rebate for roughly one million Americans, a move his administration is calling a healthcare 'refund'. The payment comes on top of Trump's earlier pledge to give every American adult $5,000 if the Republican Party wins the crucial midterm elections in November.

The $5000 offer, made at a Republican convention this week, would require recipients to spend the money in the United States, though no mechanism for enforcement has been detailed. Vice-President JD Vance suggested the cheques could be funded by tariff revenue and would not go to wealthy Americans.

Democrats quickly dismissed the $5000 promise as an election stunt, pointing to previous unfulfilled plans to distribute tariff dividends or savings from government efficiency efforts.

The combined proposals raise significant legal and financial questions. Under federal law, it is illegal to give payments intended to influence voting. However, Dr Joan Mahoney, a law lecturer at the University of Southampton, told the BBC the offer would likely be legal because it goes to everyone regardless of how they vote, comparing it to a tax cut pledge. Laurel Rapp, director of the US and North America programme at Chatham House, described it as 'a very different, very transactional agreement' from typical campaign promises.

With nearly 270 million American adults, a $5000 payout would cost roughly $1.3 trillion. Trump has not specified how either the rebate or the larger payment would be funded. Legal experts say it is unlikely such a sum could be approved by presidential executive order. Erica York, senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told the BBC she would be 'extremely surprised' if Congress approved any proposal, calling it 'one of the worst ways to use $1.3 trillion' given the nation's growing debt.

The cost implications are compounded by ongoing US military spending related to the war in Iran.