Donald Trump Pushes for $2,000 Stimulus Checks and Twitter Has a Lot to Say About It

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Congress to approve $2,000 stimulus checks rather than [...]

By Allison Schonter

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Congress to approve $2,000 stimulus checks rather than the $600 payments called for in the approved $900 billion stimulus package. The move unsurprisingly sparked plenty of buzz on social media from Americans who have been waiting eight months for additional relief, with the first (and so far only) $1,200 payments having begun being distributed in mid-April.

Trump made the request in a video shared to his Twitter account just a day after both the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the bill in floor votes, overcoming one major hurdle in efforts to pass legislation before the end of the year. Ahead of the bill arriving on the president's desk for his signature, however, Trump indicated he was not yet willing to approve it. In the nearly 10-minute-long video, the president called the bill a "disgrace" and urged congressional lawmakers to bring even more aid to Americans by upping the amount of the stimulus payments.

"It's called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID," Trump said in part. "I'm asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple."

The remarks immediately sparked a flurry of responses on Twitter as lawmakers who had just hours earlier voted on the bill issued statements of their own. While many Americans would be eager to receive a payment more than triple in price than the ones approved by Congress, some seemed to believe Trump had waited too long to make this request, others wondering if there was an ulterior motive to the demand. Scroll down to see how Twitter is reacting.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Trending Now: