U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of trying to buy his way past an unauthorized war with Iran, rising prices and the unreleased Epstein files. He delivered the message in a post on X less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The post ties together three issues that have defined his Senate work this year, and it frames the election as a moment of accountability for the president and congressional Republicans.
The Full Post
Van Hollen posted the statement at 8:14 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2026, from his official account. It reads in full:
“You can’t bribe the American people into forgetting that you started an illegal war you promised you wouldn’t, spiked prices you promised you’d lower, & hid the Epstein Files you promised you’d release.
Trump & Republicans have broken their promises & our laws.
It’s time to hold them accountable this election.”
The post links to a Washington Post report published Oct. 10 on the president’s late push to reach economically anxious voters. That report describes Trump’s recent effort to put money and tax relief in front of voters.
The Spending Push Behind the Post
The report says Trump recently began sending $500 checks to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states as a refund of Affordable Care Act fees. He also announced $90 payments to more than 20 million seniors to offset October Medicare premiums. On Monday, he signed an executive order at a Nebraska rally that widened access to tax-free dyed diesel, a fuel normally limited to farm and construction use.
The report put the average U.S. diesel price at $6.27 a gallon, nearly double a year earlier, driven by fuel disruptions tied to the Iran war. It also noted Trump’s September idea of sending $5,000 checks to every adult if Republicans win, a plan few lawmakers have embraced on the campaign trail.
The White House Response
Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga characterized the spending moves as an effort to buy votes. Republican strategist Alex Conant said concrete promises of checks are easier for voters to picture than generic tax cuts. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement that Trump’s policies have improved the economy and will keep doing so. She cited tax cuts, lower prescription drug costs, job growth and trade deals.
Asked Wednesday whether he is “throwing money at people” before the election, Trump said the country has “tremendous growth” and that his administration can do things Democrats cannot.
The $5,000 Pledge
The pledge that drew the most criticism came Sept. 9 at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas. Trump told the crowd that if Republicans win, “you win with us and you get $5,000,” tying the payment to GOP control of both chambers. He later repeated the promise and called it the “Trump dividend.”
Legal experts have split on whether the offer crosses a federal statute barring expenditures meant to influence votes. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner argued that it does, while other legal observers rejected that reading. No finding of illegality has been made.
How the Iran War Began
The war Van Hollen calls illegal began Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Trump announced the start of “major combat operations,” and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the opening strikes. A two-week ceasefire was agreed April 8, and U.S. and Iranian officials held talks in Switzerland on June 20 and in Doha on July 1. The U.S. resumed strikes on Iran on July 8 after attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz, and Reuters reported July 31 that Trump convened his Cabinet at Camp David to find a way out of the war and bring down gasoline prices.
Van Hollen’s War Powers Campaign
Van Hollen has pressed the Iran issue on the Senate floor for months. In April, he said he hoped Republican senators would “listen more to their constituents than to tweets from Donald Trump, who started this illegal war.” He added that he opposes the war itself.
Earlier, after a war powers resolution failed on a largely party-line vote, he accused Republicans of “contracting out their constitutional duties to Donald Trump.”
He filed his own resolution as part of a wave of Senate Democrats forcing votes, pairing it with a call to rein in a “lawless president” before he does “even more harm.”
The July Vote
On July 23, Van Hollen brought his resolution to the Senate floor. He said the war Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched more than 140 days earlier was “disastrous and illegal.” He noted that Congress had passed House Concurrent Resolution 86 the previous month, the first successful use of the War Powers Resolution mechanism since its 1973 enactment. In his view, that vote should have ended the conflict. He described his measure as the first since the U.S. resumed daily strikes and reimposed a naval blockade.
The Senate resolution again failed to draw enough Republican support. Van Hollen said the aim was to “hold senators of both parties accountable for ending this senseless war.”
The Epstein Files
The Epstein issue predates the war. In July 2025, Van Hollen and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi after the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously adopted their amendment requiring the Justice Department to preserve Epstein-related records. The senators urged her to “release the Epstein files without delay.”
In a later interview, Van Hollen put it more bluntly, saying “just release the damn files.”
Trump’s Position on the Files
In November 2025, Trump reversed his earlier resistance and told House Republicans to vote for release because “we have nothing to hide.” He called the matter a Democratic hoax and said Justice Department officials would examine Democrats’ ties to Epstein. Van Hollen and Durbin joined other senators that month in urging Senate Majority Leader John Thune to bring the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the floor.
The Political Stakes
Van Hollen’s call to “hold them accountable this election” arrives as prediction markets show a strong Democratic advantage. Polymarket currently puts the odds of Democrats winning the House at 91%. Market odds are not a forecast, and the outcome depends on turnout and on the economic issues at the center of the campaign.
What Comes Next
With Congress out of Washington campaigning, no further war powers votes are expected before Election Day. Voters will have the final say on Nov. 3, and Van Hollen’s post makes clear how he wants Democrats to pitch it. The war, prices and the Epstein files are all presented as promises Trump made and, in his account, did not keep.