In all honesty, that title is (to be charitable) an exaggeration. To be uncharitable, it is a lie. Donald Trump did not actually tell 5,000 lies in his speech to the Republicans' odd midterm convention last night, and I for one am glad he didn't (to do so, he would have had to speak for a lot longer than he did, and for Pete's sake the speech was long enough as it was...). But he did tell a whole bunch of whoppers, no matter what the accurate tally of them actually was. And the biggest lie he told last night was the one about how "every adult citizen" in America would get $5,000 to spend, but only if the GOP won enough seats to retain control of both the House and Senate.

To anyone salivating at the prospect of spending five grand of free cash in the near future: don't. You are never going to see that money, period. It just ain't gonna happen.

Remember when we were all going to get $5,000 in free money because Elon Musk's DOGE was going to cut so much waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal budget that the government would have so much money it wouldn't know what to do with it all? Yeah, that never happened. Remember when Trump promised us all a free $2,000 because his wonderful tariffs were bringing in so much money to federal coffers that they could afford to send it out as a "tariff dividend"? Yeah, that money never arrived either. The newly-announced "Trump dividend" of $5,000 is guaranteed to join the list of free-cash promises made and then quietly broken later.

The idea is stupid on so many different levels it's hard to even itemize them all. First, the cost. Estimates are ranging from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion. That's "trillion," with a "T" at the front of it, mind you. The national debt just crossed the threshold of hitting $40 trillion, and this would just supercharge it some more.

Second, it would be incredibly inflationary. Handing every adult in America five grand to spend would lead to a flood of demand in the marketplace, which would tend to drive prices up (basic economics). Inflation is already almost twice what the Federal Reserve wants it to be, and this would just push that number higher.

Then there's the fact that the whole scheme might be completely illegal. Sending money to people conditioned on the outcome of an election could very easily be seen as an attempt to buy votes. Which is not legal, for very good reasons. In fact, it's hard to see it any other way -- you only get the money if the election goes to the Republicans? So if you vote for a Democrat you are voting to deny everyone a fat check in their pocket? Of course, it's impossible to say how Trump's Supreme Court would rule on the issue, but it's hard to imagine any judge anywhere not seeing this as a blatant attempt to influence an election -- by using taxpayer money to do so.

Trump put a caveat on his largesse last night, but his condition would be pretty impossible to police. He said that the money could only be spent in America -- none of it could be used to buy anything in any other country. So how exactly is he going to determine if anyone does so? The mind boggles at how the government could even attempt to enforce this condition.

Even some Republicans are already balking at Trump's loony idea, meaning that even if they did retain control of Congress it'd be hard for them to pass any bill funding the crazy scheme. Enough Republicans already know deep down that this is a monumentally stupid idea, which means Trump wouldn't be able to get it passed even through a Republican Congress.

The truly ironic (and hilarious) part of all this is that the announcement came after multiple Republican speakers denounced (in the strongest possible language) "socialism" as the biggest evil America was facing today. Republicans regularly sneer at Democrats for proposing (as they put it) "free stuff" for the public. They caution against Democrats propensity to "redistribute wealth," on ideological grounds. So what, exactly, is different about Trump's new plan to send out $5,000 for free to every adult in the country? How is that not socialistic redistribution of wealth? How is that not offering up "free stuff"? The staunchly conservative National Review condemned the proposal in an article titled: "Trump Breaks Glass, Joins Socialists, Embraces Bribery." Sounds about right.

As with other crazy whims from the Dear Leader, some Republicans will treat it as gospel and offer their full support for the idea -- right up until the election actually happens, after which (even assuming Republicans do pull off an upset win) they will quietly forget all about the idea. But for now, they'll be effusive in their praise for the emperor's wonderful new clothing, insisting to all that they can, in fact, see the splendor of it all.

But in the end, it will be nothing more than a $5,000 lie. Don't start planning how you're going to spend this wonderful free gift, because it ain't gonna happen. It is just one more crazy bee in Trump's bonnet that will never actually materialize. And that's the honest truth of the matter.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant