BREAKING: Trump Caves and Signs Covid-19 Relief Bill, Averting Government Shutdown

Sarah RumpfDec 27th, 2020, 8:20 pm
 

Joyce N. Boghosian/The White House via Getty Images

President Donald Trump has signed the Covid-19 relief bill, averting a looming government shutdown that would have happened on Tuesday if the bill failed to pass.

After days of refusing to sign the bill and making demands for the $600 stimulus checks to be increased to $2,000, Trump tweeted on Sunday evening that there was “good news” coming regarding the bill, as Mediaite reported earlier.

Media outlets began reporting that a room at Mar-a-Lago, where the president is spending the Christmas holidays, was being prepared by staff for a bill signing ceremony.

Around 8 pm ET, reporters began tweeting that the bill had been signed, including Politico’s Jake Sherman and Meridith McGraw, and Zeke Miller with the AP.

The White House just sent out a statement officially confirming that the bill was signed.

Trump also released a statement taking credit for helping America avoid “another Great Depression,” and listing several demands that he had, including the $2,000 checks again, rescissions of certain budget items that he was going to redline, a review of Section 230, and the House and Senate agreeing to “focus very strongly on the very substantial voter fraud” that he has continued to baselessly claim occurred during the November 3 election.

“I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more,” wrote Trump.

“Much more money is coming,” the president concluded. “I will never give up my fight for the American people!”

This is a breaking story and has been updated.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.