Nancy Pelosi Says It’s ‘Shameful’ That Donald Trump Ordered His Signature Printed On Coronavirus Relief Checks
Nancy Pelosi said it is “shameful” that Donald Trump has ordered that his signature be printed on coronavirus relief checks, a decision that will reportedly delay the distribution of the first checks to Americans suffering from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The House speaker released a statement on Wednesday criticizing what she saw as a selfish decision and a reflection of Trump’s misguided priorities in response to the coronavirus.
“Delaying direct payments to vulnerable families just to print his name on the check is another shameful example of President Trump’s catastrophic failure to treat this crisis with the urgency it demands,” Pelosi said in a statement, via The Hill.
As The Inquisitr had reported, the president’s name will appear on the memo line of the checks as his name could not legally appear on the signature line. Several IRS officials told The Washington Post that the stimulus checks will be delayed because of the extra time it will take to issue them. The report noted that the IRS’s information technology team had to rush to make a programming change that would allow Trump’s signature to appear.
Paper checks will only be mailed to Americans who do not have banking information on file with the IRS. All others will receive funding by direct deposit. It was not immediately clear when paper checks would start to arrive, but some Americans have already received stimulus funds deposited in their accounts.
Pelosi’s criticism of Trump’s decision came just a day after she wrote a letter to House Democrats faulting Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis, saying he wasted valuable time by downplaying the virus when he should have been making preparations.
As The Inquisitr reported, Pelosi said that the coronavirus crisis is “an unbearably sad time for Americans” who are dealing with simultaneous trauma of losing loved ones, fearing for their own health and safety, and dealing with lost jobs and other economic impacts. She said that in order to move forward, there needs to be a clear understanding of what put Americans in this position, which includes poor leadership from Trump.
“The truth is that in January Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and disaster,” she wrote, adding that Trump told his “most loyal followers” that the pandemic was a hoax that would magically disappear, ultimately putting more lives in danger.
