Donald Trump Lashes out Over Relief Bill, Threatens to Veto Unless Changes Are Made

President Donald Trump is ready to veto the latest coronavirus relief bill after not agreeing with some of the terms that were reached in the plan. He shared a four-minute video on his Twitter on Tuesday evening about the bill that will soon be heading to his desk. “It really is a disgrace,” Trump said of the pandemic package. “It’s the COVID relief bill but it almost has nothing do with COVID.”

Trump pointed to a gripe that some other Republicans have called out, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, about how Democrats appeared to push their own agenda. “This bill contains $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia, $134 million to Burna, $1.3 million to Egypt and the Egyptian military which will go out and almost exclusively buy Russian military equippment,” Trump went on to say. He continued to rattle off beneficiaries in the bill that don’t have anything to do with the coronavirus. Trump also mentioned how stimulus checks will still be able to go to “family members of illegal aliens, allowing them to get up to $1,800 each.” He then shot down the idea of $600 being enough to stimulate the economy or providing enough help for families in need.

He announced that he would veto this bill unless changes are needed, believing that too much money is going to foreign countries and that “the bare minimum is going to the American people.” Trump wrapped up his message by urging Congress to amend the bill and “increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000.” His other demands also call for “wasteful items” to be removed and then once Congress puts together a more suitable plan, he will approve it.

This comes a day after Congress passed the bipartisan legislation after months of the two parties in a standstill over a new package’s parameters. Among the most talked-about items included in the bill is the $600 stimulus check that will be included for all eligible Americans. After the spring package featured a stimulus check that was good for $1,200, many Americans were a bit bothered, even feeling overlooked as Trump suggested, that the government would cut that payment in half despite the COVID-19 numbers reaching an all-time high and the country continuing to be battered down in 2020 from all angles.