Donald Trump’s late-night tweetstorm muddies his decision on stimulus talks

Only hours after unexpectedly ending negotiations on another federal coronavirus rescue package, US President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass stand-alone bills on direct payments and assistance to airlines and small businesses – all measures that would have likely been included in the larger piece of legislation that was being negotiated between the White House and Democrats.

Major airlines are moving to lay-off 32,000 workers in the coming weeks, and it has increased pressure on the administration to strike a deal with Democrats to prevent job losses. In a series of late-night tweets, Trump called on both parties to support the provisions.

“The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business,” he wrote on Twitter, adding he would “sign now”.

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In another tweet posted less than half an hour later, Trump said he was ready to sign a separate piece of legislation to provide US$1,200 direct payments for American taxpayers.

The president tagged White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump’s tweets are a striking shift from earlier on Tuesday. The president abruptly announced that he ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to cease negotiating on a government aid package with Pelosi, and said a large bill would come after the election.

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The directive, Trump’s first major policy pronouncement since leaving hospital, sent Wall Street plunging and upended recent progress made in the long-delayed stimulus package negotiations.

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Both sides were US$700 billion apart in their virus aid proposals with Democrats recently passing a US$2.2 trillion spending package, a slimmed-down version of another plan they approved in May.

Democrats have long insisted on a broad spending package to deal with every facet of the public health and economic crises the pandemic has caused. Pelosi and top Democrats previously rejected Republican attempts to pass stand-alone bills during previous relief negotiations in late July and early August which ultimately collapsed.

Many economists say additional federal spending is needed to prop up the economy. Job growth is slowing sharply and permanent job losses continue to increase.

Nearly 26.5 million Americans are on unemployment benefits, and Trump did not mention any measures to keep them afloat in his tweets.

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The president pulled the plug on the negotiations on the same day Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned in a speech of “tragic results” in the economy without additional government support.

The president is still less than a week removed from his diagnosis for coronavirus, which prompted a three-day hospitalisation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump’s doctors said he would continue to receive treatments – including steroids and the antiviral remdesivir – upon returning to the White House.

Trump is battling the virus – which has already killed more than 210,000 Americans – alongside more than two dozen aides and close associates who have tested positive in the past week.

In just a two-hour stretch late Tuesday, Trump also announced he was declassifying all documents related to the probe into his campaign’s ties to Russia – a move he subsequently claimed to have already taken – retweeted criticism of a premium cable miniseries, predicted the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would be “fast and easy”, and blasted presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace as “a total JOKE.”

He also criticised his own Food and Drug Administration, saying safety standards prepared by the agency for a coronavirus vaccine amounted to “another political hit job”. The president insulted the physical appearance of Pelosi and declared that the upcoming election would be the “most corrupt” in American history. He further pledged to also declassify documents related to the four year old investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Business Insider and Bloomberg