Trump asked to pull back support for $2,000 stimulus checks

It’s now being reported that White House aids stepped in to keep Trump from pushing for a $2,000 stimulus check because they feared that it would ruin the relief negotiations.

Trump has almost always been a supporter of stimulus checks since the first talk of them began back in the spring of 2020.

During the summer and fall months, when there was a lot of disagreement on what a stimulus package could contain, he also voiced a lot of support for stimulus checks.

And not just standard checks but checks in high amounts.

He reiterated the support very recently but it appears that some of his advisers encouraged him to turn down the dial.

According to the Washington Post, his advisers thought that his support for a large package would derail negotiations.

If true, this is not much of a surprise because there were Republicans who cautioned Trump against supporting too high of a stimulus relief bill not too long ago.

An anonymous source told the Washington Post that “aides were really frantic, saying: ‘We can’t do this; it will blow up negotiations.'”

So while I think it is likely true that is advisers did not want him to support a large stimulus check proposal, whether or not it is true that his support would blow up negotiations is debatable.

It’s not like people didn’t know where Trump stood on stimulus checks as he had been voicing this type of support for months.

If anything, it would probably cause a bigger rift within the Republican party which would likely result in an outcome favoring Democrats more.

You could imagine Republicans feeling a lot of pressure to give in to more spending if the Republican party was truly split on more stimulus checks.

It would be really easy to single out a dozen or so key Republicans who voted against stimulus checks. And with so many families struggling right now, that could really cost them a lot politically.

But by avoiding the rift in the party, that outcome could be avoided.

Apparently, Trump still supports a significant number for relief but we might not hear him come out explicitly in support of an exact figure.

Ben Williamson (who is a White House spokesman) told The Post that Trump supports large payments.

“The President has heard from Americans all over the country who are hurting through no fault of their own, and he’s made clear he wants the next round of relief to include stimulus checks at a significant number,” he said.

“We’re working with Congress to settle on an agreement that can pass as soon as possible.”

Right now, it is looking like more stimulus checks will likely go out but they may be capped at $600. We’re expected to see a deal come together over the weekend.

H/T

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