President Donald Trump changed course Tuesday night and urged Congress to pass a series of measures to alleviate the crisis caused by the coronavirus who declared himself willing to sign, including stimulus checks worth $ 1,200 for Americans.
Hours before, he had interrupted the talks between the main members of the Democratic Party and the Republicans about new aid until after the elections on November 3, which seemed to have buried the possibilities of a new stimulus package before then.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the elections when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major stimulus bill,” he wrote on a busy day on the social network Twitter.
He also claimed to have asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to focus his pre-election efforts on confirm his Supreme Court candidate, Amy Coney Barrett.
In the minutes after these messages, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 400 points. Before that announcement, on the same day, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the economic recovery remains fragile seven months after the start of the coronavirus pandemic and highlighted the need for new economic stimulus plans.
But hours later, Trump appeared to back down: “If you send me a separate bill for stimulus checks ($ 1,200), it will go to our great folks IMMEDIATELY. I’m ready to sign right now,” he tweeted Tuesday night. The president spread those messages when still in the process of recovery after being infected by coronavirus.
A senior administration official familiar with the president’s thoughts on the matter said Tuesday that “a large-scale stimulus package is on the sidelines,” as Trump previously made clear, according to our sister network NBC News. But the White House appears to be planning to push through a series of smaller individual packages on mutually agreed-upon items.
The previous announcement that the President suspended negotiations for new aid affected by the economic crisis as a result of the pandemic generated puzzled reactions between people who need support.
