Trump Says Coronavirus Relief Talks Have Restarted, Just Days After He Ended Negotiations

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:58 pm

President Donald Trump says coronavirus aid talks have restarted, just days after he shocked financial markets by announcing he’d ordered Republicans to end negotiations altogether.

“Now they are starting to work out,” he told Fox Business Network.

Earlier this week, Trump announced he had instructed Republicans not to negotiate a coronavirus financial stimulus package until after November’s general election. He appeared to reverse course the following morning,

telling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that he is “Waiting To Sign” a bill authorizing stimulus checks as soon as it lands on his desk.

The President’s remark came as he quoted his own tweet from Tuesday in which he said that he’ll sign a bill for $1200 stimulus checks that would “go out to our great people IMMEDIATELY.”

Move Fast, I Am Waiting To Sign! @SpeakerPelosi https://t.co/RYBeWWuPC2

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

Trump’s mixed messages confused financial markets and came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said more financial relief would be needed to help the economy recover.

“This appears to be a none too subtle effort to cherry-pick the bits of a fiscal stimulus plan that are directly vote-winning potentially,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda. “Whether the American public buys it or not is another thing altogether.”

It is unclear if a stimulus deal will be reached but Pelosi aide Drew Hammill said another conversation will take place today.

Yesterday, Pelosi said Trump had made a “terrible mistake” by halting negotiations.

“It’s hard to see any clear sane path on what he’s doing but the fact is, he saw the political downside of his statement of walking away from the negotiations … he’s rebounding from a terrible mistake he made yesterday and the Republicans in Congress are going down the drain with him on that,” she said. “But I will say this, it is really important for us to come to this agreement. When the president just popped off and made that announcement without even informing us that that was the case, he insulted the Constitution of the United States.”