The 1935 book which predicted Trump's $5,000 dividend

Donald Trump’s absurd plan to give every American adult a $5,000 cheque, so long as the Republicans triumph in November’s midterm elections, has been described as unprecedented. But that’s not entirely true.

The president made the entirely uncosted pledge at the party’s so-called Trumpapalooza special convention in Dallas this week, promising to hand over the cash if the Republicans retain control of both the House and the Senate.

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The vow has inevitably been widely welcomed in a Republican party which once promoted fiscal responsibility, with vice-president JD Vance describing the £1 trillion bonanza as “a dividend for American workers”. Senator Bernie Moreno, meanwhile, who has previously called for reparations to be paid to the descendants of Union soldiers who died in the Civil War, cheered: “I will get a bill ready so that we can get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election… because Republicans (and America) will win!”

Readers of 1930s dystopian fiction, though, might be forgiven for experiencing déjà vu. Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here depicted a future US in which the fascist Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip wins the 1936 presidential election in part by promising a $5,000 yearly stipend to American citizens.

Following his election, Windrip – whose name, as fans of Viz’s Profanisaurus might note, is not a million miles from Trump – outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies in concentration camps and trains and arms a paramilitary force called the Minute Men to terrorise civilians.

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In time – SPOILER ALERT, although it was published 91 years ago – Windrip’s hold on power weakens as his promised economic prosperity fails to materialise, and increasing numbers of disillusioned Americans, including vice-president Perley Beecroft, flee the country. Civil war ensues.

Still, perhaps the laughable “Trump Dividend” won’t even go ahead. Americans are still waiting for the $2,000 cheques he said they would each receive from his trade tariffs. The $5,000 “DOGE dividend checks” which Elon Musk promised would come from his massive public spending cuts have also yet to drop through US letterboxes.