Trump Sabotages COVID Relief Bill (UPDATED)

What a moron does:

President Trump on Tuesday night asked Congress to amend the nearly $900 billion stimulus and spending bill passed by the Senate just one day before, describing the legislation as “a disgrace” and suggesting he would not immediately sign off on aid for millions of Americans.

In a video posted to Twitter, Trump called on Congress to increase the “ridiculously low” $600 stimulus checks to $2,000 and outlined a list of provisions in the final legislation that he described as “wasteful spending and much more.” He did not mention that the $600 stimulus check idea came from his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. [snip]

Some aides were stunned that Trump weighed in the way he did after his economic team had publicly praised the bill.

But administration officials had negotiated the bill with lawmakers in the final days without explicitly securing Trump’s approval, aides said. He had largely been distracted with overturning the results of the presidential election.

Trump had long wanted to do more than $600 in checks and kept asking aides why they couldn’t agree to a bigger number, an official said.

He released the video Tuesday after a number of his aides, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, were already out of town.

“So dumb,” one administration official said. “So, so dumb.”  [snip]

Virtually all of the complaints Trump made in the four-minute video — including foreign aid agreements, aid to the Kennedy Center, fish management language and more — are not part of the $900 billion covid relief agreement but rather included in other, separately negotiated part of the legislation. This part of the bill is a $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations bill and a bill authorizing $9.9 billion in water projects. These bills and many others were packaged together into one package.

Two congressional aides who had been involved in the negotiations said they were completely unaware of any problems the White House had with the bill. On Sunday, Ben Williamson, a spokesman for White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadow, said publicly ahead of the bill’s release that Trump supported the legislation and would sign it.

Trump’s refusal to publicly embrace the bill as it moved through Congress made some aides nervous, raising the prospect that he would once again cannonball into the pool at the end with a public declaration.

“This is what happens with a president who places more trust in conservative fever swamp Twitter than his own Treasury Secretary. His administration helped negotiate this bill, and he just pulled down the pants of every Republican who voted for it,” said Brendan Buck, a former top aide to Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan and Buck often struggled with the president changing his mind. [snip]

The House and Senate passed the bill with such large margins that they could probably override a veto, if Trump tried to block the measure. But that process could take weeks. And in the video, Trump didn’t explicitly say he would veto it. He also didn’t commit, however, to signing it into law.  (our emphasis)

We have to see how this plays out over the coming hours and days.  When you're dealing with an unstable nitwit who hasn't a clue about policy or how the legislative process works, the potential for major delay is real. We're not sure who's been whispering into Mango Mussolini's ear, but some of the worst sociopaths in Congress voted against the bill and may have influenced him (Republican Sens. Ron "Tiny" Johnson, "Ayn" Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Tailgunner Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marsha "Holes In" Blackburn were the only 6 who voted against the bill), or it may be dead- ender Trade Advisor Peter Navarro.  Regardless, real people will suffer any derailment of this relief legislation, and that's another "legacy" of this most despicable president and his regime.

UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi with the outflanking -- 




Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks. At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it! https://t.co/Th4sztrpLV

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 23, 2020

 

 Sen. Schumer piles on:

Hey Senate Republicans:

Remember when you rejected bigger checks on Friday? pic.twitter.com/OW3pzke97j

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 23, 2020