In the long history of democratic politics, the line between persuasion and inducement has always been contested ground. Donald Trump's pledge to deliver $5,000 payments to Americans — contingent on Republicans retaining Congress — has revived that ancient tension in a distinctly modern legal register. Federal anti-bribery statutes, designed to guard the integrity of official acts and electoral processes, are now being measured against a campaign promise that critics and legal scholars alike find difficult to categorize. The question being asked is not merely political but philosophical: at wh