Is Trump's $5,000 pledge a sign of panic?

Figure caption, BBC’s Samira Hussain explains what needs to happen for Trump's $5,000 gift to become reality

North America editor, reporting from Dallas Published 1 hour ago We all know that Donald Trump does not feel the need to adhere to the normal rules of political campaigning. Even by his own unconventional standards, his extravagant promise to pay every American citizen $5,000 (£3,700) if the Republicans win the midterm elections was bizarre.

This enormous cash pledge was not the headline of his keynote address at the first night of his midterms Republican convention on Wednesday.

He slipped in the mention about an hour into his lengthy speech - just when the audience's attention was starting to waver.

The president offered no details on how this more than one-trillion-dollar pledge will be paid for or how the payments would be distributed.