WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House on Wednesday tried to salvage items lost in the rubble of COVID-19 relief talks that President Donald Trump halted, with his administration pressing for $1,200 stimulus checks and a new wave of aid for airlines and other businesses hard hit by the pandemic.
In a number of tweets, Trump pressed for passage of chunks of assistance, an about-face from an abrupt move on Tuesday to abandon talks with a longtime rival, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I am ready to sign right now. Are you listening Nancy?” Trump said on Twitter Tuesday evening. He also urged Congress to immediately approve $25 billion for airlines and $135 billion the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses.
Trump’s decision to scuttle talks between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Pelosi came after the president was briefed on the landscape for the negotiations – and on the blowback that any Pelosi-Mnuchin deal probably would have received from his GOP allies in Congress.
