Trump Threatens To Veto COVID Relief Bill Unless Stimulus Cheques Go To $2,000

President Donald Trump appears to have threatened to veto the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress on Monday, December 21.

This package, which has been widely criticised as insufficicient by both Democrats and Republicans, would include $600 cheques for most people, plus a $300-a-week unemployment boost.

Now, Trump has demanded ‘a suitable bill’ instead, in what appears to have been a veto threat, calling for boost cheques to be brought from $600 up to $2,000.

It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID.

The package, designed to help Americans who are struggling during the pandemic, is connected to a bigger government spending bill. This bill includes foreign aid funding, as well as a $1.4tn spending measure to keep federal agencies funded for the next nine months.

President Trump had been expected to sign the legislation into law after it had been passed by congress. However, the president took issue with the funding outlined for other countries, arguing that the money should go towards helping Americans instead.

Trump said:

This bill contains $85.5m for assistance to Cambodia, $134m to Burma, $1.3bn for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment, $25m for democracy and gender programmes in Pakistan, $505m to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

The president continued:

Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it. It wasn’t their fault. It was China’s fault.

I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.

I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package.