President Trump on Sunday signed the government funding and coronavirus relief package, the White House said, averting a government shutdown and delivering economic aid as the pandemic worsens.
Trump signed off on the $2.3 trillion package from his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., days after he expressed displeasure with the spending outlined in the omnibus and complained that the coronavirus relief measure should include direct payments of $2,000 per person, up from $600.
But the delay came after unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans on Saturday as the bill went unsigned. Trump has visited his golf club in Florida each day since arriving in the state on Wednesday and has made no public appearances.
“I will sign the Omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed,” Trump said in a statement upon signing the legislation. “I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill.”
Trump’s statement was at times self-congratulatory, despite the fact that he had single-handedly brought the government to the brink of a shutdown.
The president credited his work with Congress in passing the CARES Act earlier this year, which he said helped the country avoid “another Great Depression,” though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was the lead negotiator for the White House.
He boasted that he was signing the bill “to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more.” But unemployment benefits lapsed on Saturday, and eviction moratoriums would have done the same had Trump not signed the bill soon.
Trump, as part of his statement formally announcing the decision, said that the Senate had agreed to tee up several of his priorities, including his push for $2,000 checks and repealing a tech shield that has emerged as a top target for the president and conservative allies.
“Likewise, the House and Senate have agreed to focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud which took place in the November 3 Presidential election. The Senate will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an investigation into voter fraud,” Trump said in his statement.
The House will vote on Monday on legislation that would change the $600 in the coronavirus relief-government funding package to $2,000, an amount supported by Trump and Democratic leaders.
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JUST IN: Trump signs coronavirus relief bill despite criticism https://t.co/qGcK1FJAxO pic.twitter.com/lPIohJFGy0
— The Hill (@thehill) December 28, 2020Step 1: refuse to engage publicly for months.
Step 2: watch a supermajority pass a bill.
Step 3: forcefully threaten to veto it unless demands met.
Step 4: back down and sign it; look weak.As a bonus, you enrage your party and hang your SecTreas out to dry.
What a world.
— Matt Glassman (@MattGlassman312) December 28, 2020
Trump always has to have drama. It keeps him in the news 24/7. This time though the drama reminded those outside his cult why they were right in voting against him. People became tired of his endless bovine excrement and now they are counting the days till he vacates the White House.
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