Trump orders $400-per-week unemployment payments amid COVID crisis, hits Dems for stonewalling

US President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending coronavirus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Aug. 8.

President Trump signs executive orders on coronavirus relief which includes a payroll tax holiday, protects people from eviction, provides additional $400 per week of expanded unemployment benefits and suspends student loan payments as the stimulus talks stalled on Capitol Hill.

President Trump signed four executive actions Saturday aimed at delivering relief to Americans struggling with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic while accusing Democrats of stonewalling greater aid efforts.

Trump announced a $400-per-week supplemental unemployment payment to out-of-work Americans -- short of the $600 weekly benefit that expired at the end of July. He unveiled an extension of student loan relief and protections from evictions for renters and homeowners.
Trump also issued a payroll tax holiday through the end of the year for Americans earning less than $100,000, while promising more relief if he wins a second term.
The president signed the executive actions from his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., as club members cheered him on. He blamed Democrats for the coronavirus stalemate in Congress and said he'd take matters into his own hands.

"Democrats are obstructing all of it," Trump said. "Therefore, I'm taking executive action ... and we're going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers."
For the new $400-per-week benefit, states would be on the hook for funding 25 percent for the millions of jobless Americans, while the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the benefit, Trump said. Asked when the jobless would see the money, Trump said it would be “rapidly distributed.”

The $400 boost is more than what many congressional Republicans wanted. Some opposed any extension of the federal aid, while others backed a boost no greater than $200 per week. Meanwhile, Democrats had been fighting for the full $600-per-week extension, which is on top of state unemployment benefits.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dismissed Trump's “meager” actions and slammed the president for signing them from his Bedminster club.
“Today’s meager announcements by the president show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families," Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement Saturday. "We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare."
Trump has long wanted a holiday on payroll taxes, which help fund Social Security and Medicare. But congressional Republicans have not fought for the provision because of how much the suspension on tax collection could drive up an already staggering debt.
Acting unilaterally could prompt legal challenges. Since Congress controls new federal spending, Trump already predicted sidestepping lawmakers could have lawsuit consequences. But he dared opponents to deprive Americans of relief.
"If we get sued, it's [from] somebody that doesn't want people to get money," Trump said. "And that's not going to be a very popular thing."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Trump's payroll tax holiday could drain the Social Security trust fund and said some states cannot afford the 25 percent unemployment match, especially since the GOP has opposed additional money to state and local governments.

“Donald Trump is trying to distract from his failure to extend the $600 federal boost for 30 million unemployed workers by issuing illegal executive orders," Wyden said. "This scheme is a classic Donald Trump con: play-acting at leadership while robbing people of the support they desperately need."
But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he supports Trump's unilateral actions.
"I applaud @realDonaldTrump executive actions to help the American [people]," Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, tweeted. "Democrats all or nothing strategy jeopardizes the certainty Americans need to pay their bills. [President] Trump puts the American [people] first, compared to nonstop political games by Democrats."
House Democrats already passed their $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill in May. The Senate GOP last month proposed a $1 trillion plan, though didn't bring the measure to a vote as Republicans were divided on whether more aid is even needed.
Pelosi and Schumer have been in talks all week with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, but the two sides couldn't strike a deal.
Democrats blamed the GOP for failing to understand the gravity of the crisis and for trying to "nickel and dime" struggling Americans, while the White House accused Democrats of not being willing to compromise.

Trump blasted the Democrats' $3 trillion HEROES Act as a “radical left policy” that includes bailouts to states, sending stimulus help to undocumented immigrants, and funding for mail-in voting and other election provisions.
“They want to steal the election," Trump said of Democrats.
Trump's orders are narrower in scope than the trillions Congress is mulling for a massive stimulus to the virus-damaged economy.
The president didn't address some of the big issues that congressional proposals sought to tackle, including another round of $1,200 stimulus checks, aid to schools to reopen safely, an infusion of cash to revenue-strapped state and local governments, food assistance, new lawsuit protections for businesses and money for mail-in voting for the 2020 elections.
Because of provisions in the Constitution that grant the legislative branch spending power, the White House can't just pull hundreds of billions out of the ether without Congressional approval.
But the Trump administration believes it has access to $140 billion which it can “reprogram.” That includes $80 billion in untapped money from the big coronavirus bill signed into law in March and roughly $40 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund.

Trump's executive order indicated he would use "up to $44 billion from the DRF" to cover the federal government's 75 percent share of the $400 weekly unemployment aid.
The White House believes it can divert the funding, similar to how Trump in 2019 declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico to shift billions of dollars from the Pentagon budget to help pay for a border wall.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said Trump may have some legal authority to defer payroll taxes and student loan repayments as well as extending housing assistance. But the $400 unemployment payments are a different story.
“The unemployment benefits are less clear because the Constitution gives Congress authority to spend money,” Tobias told Fox News. “[The president] may try to move around other money appropriated like Trump did with the wall. It is unclear that lawsuits could be resolved in time to stop some of his efforts.”
Democrats want the White House to continue negotiating with Congress on a big package.
“Democrats repeat our call to Republicans to return to the table, meet us halfway and work together to deliver immediate relief to the American people," Schumer and Pelosi said Saturday. "Lives are being lost, and time is of the essence.”

No votes are expected in the House until the week of Sept. 14 unless both parties can reach a deal on a coronavirus stimulus package.
The need for relief is pressing as millions of Americans lost the $600-per-week federal unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July. A partial moratorium on evictions on properties with government-backed mortgages also expired at the end of last month.
There are about 110 million Americans living in rental households; up to 23 million renters – or 20 percent – are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30, according to an analysis by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project.
With the supplemental $600 in unemployment benefits now officially lapsed, about 24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month's rent, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Rent and mortgage payments are typically the largest monthly expense for Americans: 1 in 4 tenant families pays more than half of its income for rent, a rate that’s even higher in cities like San Francisco and New York, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
New jobless figures from the Labor Department, which cover the week ending August 1, show that more than 1.18 million workers sought aid last week, the lowest since March 14.  The latest figures bring the total number of unemployment claims since the shutdown began to more than 55 million.

The unemployment rate sits at 10.2%, down from 11.1% in June.
Fox News' Mark Meredith, John Roberts, Jon Decker, Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman and Megan Henney contributed to this report.

Sleepy Joe Cartoons

Virus aid talks collapse; no help expected for jobless now

WASHINGTON (AP) — A last-ditch effort by Democrats to revive Capitol Hill talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money collapsed in disappointment at week’s end, making it increasingly likely that Washington gridlock will mean more hardship for millions of people who are losing enhanced jobless benefits and further damage for an economy pummeled by the still-raging coronavirus.

President Donald Trump said Friday night he was likely to issue more limited executive orders related to COVID, perhaps in the next day or so, if he can’t reach a broad agreement with Congress.

The day’s negotiations at the Capitol added up to only “a disappointing meeting,” declared top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, saying the White House had rejected an offer by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to curb Democratic demands by about $1 trillion. He urged the White House to “negotiate with Democrats and meet us in the middle. Don’t say it’s your way or no way.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “Unfortunately we did not make any progress today.” Republicans said Pelosi was relying on budget maneuvers to curb costs and contended she has overplayed her hand.

Often an impasse in Washington is of little consequence for the public — not so this time. It means longer and perhaps permanent expiration of a $600 per-week bonus pandemic jobless benefit that’s kept millions of people from falling into poverty. It denies more than $100 billion to help schools reopen this fall. It blocks additional funding for virus testing as cases are surging this summer. And it denies billions of dollars to state and local governments considering furloughs as their revenue craters.

Ahead is uncertainty. Both the House and Senate have left Washington, with members sent home on instructions to be ready to return for a vote on an agreement. With no deal in sight, their absence raises the possibility of a prolonged stalemate that stretches well into August and even September.

Speaking from his New Jersey golf club Friday evening, Trump said “if Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.”

Trump said he may issue executive orders on home evictions, student loan debt and allowing states to repurpose COVID relief funding into their unemployment insurance programs. He also said he’ll likely issue an executive order to defer collection of Social Security payroll taxes, an idea that has less support among his Republican allies.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said, “This is not a perfect answer — we’ll be the first ones to say that — but it is all that we can do, and all the president can do within the confines of his executive power.”

Friday’s Capitol Hill session followed a combative meeting Thursday evening that for the first time cast real doubt on the ability of the Trump administration and Democrats to come together on a fifth COVID-19 response bill. Pelosi summoned Mnuchin and Meadows in hopes of breathing life into the negotiations, which have been characterized by frustration and intransigence on both sides — particularly on top issues such as extending the bonus jobless benefit that expired last week.

Pelosi declared the talks all but dead until Meadows and Mnuchin give ground.

“I’ve told them ‘come back when you are ready to give us a higher number,’” she said.

The breakdown in the negotiations is particularly distressing for schools, which have been counting on billions of dollars from Washington to help with the costs of reopening. But other priorities are also languishing, including a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, a cash infusion for the struggling Postal Service and money to help states hold elections in November.

In a news conference on Friday Pelosi said she offered a major concession to Republicans.

“We’ll go down $1 trillion, you go up $1 trillion,” Pelosi said. The figures are approximate, but a Pelosi spokesman said the speaker is in general terms seeking a “top line” of perhaps $2.4 trillion since the House-passed HEROES Act is scored at $3.45 trillion. Republicans say their starting offer was about $1 trillion but have offered some concessions on jobless benefits and aid to states, among others, that have brought the White House offer higher.

Mnuchin said renewal of a $600 per-week pandemic jobless boost and huge demands by Democrats for aid to state and local governments are the key areas where they are stuck.

“There’s a lot of areas of compromise,” he said after Friday’s meeting. “I think if we can reach an agreement on state and local and unemployment, we will reach an overall deal. And if we can’t we can’t.”

Democrats have offered to reduce her almost $1 trillion demand for state and local governments considerably, but some of Pelosi’s proposed cost savings would accrue chiefly because she would shorten the timeframe for benefits like food stamps.

Pelosi and Schumer continue to insist on a huge aid package to address a surge in cases and deaths, double-digit joblessness and the threat of poverty for millions of the newly unemployed.

On Friday, they pointed to the new July jobs report to try to bolster their proposals. The report showed that the U.S. added 1.8 million jobs last month, a much lower increase than in May and June.

“It’s clear the economy is losing steam,” Schumer said. “That means we need big, bold investments in America to help average folks.”

Senate Republicans have been split, with roughly half of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s rank and file opposed to another rescue bill at all. Four prior coronavirus response bills totaling almost $3 trillion have won approval on bipartisan votes despite intense wrangling, but conservatives have recoiled at the prospect of another Pelosi-brokered agreement with a whopping deficit-financed cost.

McConnell has kept his distance from the negotiations while coordinating with Mnuchin and Meadows.

In addition to restoring the lapsed $600-per-week bonus jobless benefit, Pelosi and Schumer have staked out a firm position to extend demanded generous child care assistance and reiterated their insistence on additional funding for food stamps and assistance to renters and homeowners facing eviction or foreclosure.

“This virus is like a freight train coming so fast and they are responding like a convoy going as slow as the slowest ship. It just doesn’t work,” Pelosi said Friday.

Newt Gingrich claims Biden's 'embrace' of China 'dictatorship' should shock Americans

American voters should closely examine presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his "embrace" of China, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told "The Ingraham Angle" Friday.
"I think there is a huge vulnerability because the Democrats don't want to deal with the reality of China, and they don't want to deal with the reality of Xi Jinping and the dictatorship," Gingrich told host Laura Ingraham. "And I think that will be more obvious as this campaign goes on."
During an interview at the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the former vice president told NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro he would scrap tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by Trump. "Who said Trump’s idea’s a good one?" Biden asked rhetorically. "Manufacturing has gone into a recession. Agriculture lost billions of dollars that taxpayers had to pay," A Biden aide later attempted to clarify to Forbes that the Democrat would "reevaluate" the tariffs.
Gingrich told Ingraham that Biden is not the only Democrat inclined to take a positive view of China, citing Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein of California
"She said last week that we should all be very proud of how much China has made that it has become a normal country," he said, referring to remarks in which Feinstein said the U.S. considers China "a potential trading partner ... a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time, and as a country growing into a respectable nation amongst other nations," according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Gingrich added that the Democratic view of China goes hand-in-hand with the party's suspicion of law enforcement and calls for defense cuts.
"They want to live in a world [where] they can pretend there are no predators either at home or abroad," he said. "It is a very dangerous position to be in."

Trump campaign spokeswoman calls Biden 'an empty vessel filled by the radicals' in Democratic Party

The Democrats' presumptive nomination of Joe Biden shows the party has no new ideas and needs "a vessel for the radical social agenda," Trump campaign press communications director Erin Perrine told "Hannity" Friday.
Perrine told host Jason Chaffetz that Biden's delayed choice of a running mate helps prove her point.
"We have seen him delay and delay and delay," she said. "Remember, if they had the [Democratic] convention at the normal time, it would have happened a month ago. Why is it so delayed?"
"Joe Biden has bad choices across the board, between crazy or even crazier when it comes to who he will try to pick," Perrine went on, describing Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., as "Comrade Karen Bass who praises socialist dictators," a reference to Bass' warm words for Cuban despot Fidel Castro.
She added that another presumed contender, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, has an "abysmal record from the Obama/Biden administration."
"It truly doesn't matter who Joe Biden picks because it is a bad choice pool all around for him," Perrine said. "Not only is this who he thinks will be the future of the Democrat Party -- he says he is the transition candidate -- but look who he is talking about. He is floating 'Pretend Governor' [of Georgia] Stacey Abrams or Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Queen of Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do with her tyrannical hold in Michigan."
"It truly doesn't matter, Joe Biden is an empty vessel filled by the radicals."

Trump rips Portland rioters: 'These are really sick, disturbed people'

Somebody knows who this freak is, they need to turn him in.

As yet another night of unrest loomed in Portland, Ore., on Friday, President Trump told reporters the federal government could very easily put a stop to it – if only local leaders would seek help.
“We will go in and stop the problems in Portland in 24 hours,” the president said at a news conference in New Jersey, according to OregonLive.com.
He added: “We’re supposed to be asked.”
In Portland, crowds have turned out nightly for more than two months since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis – purportedly to protest of racial injustice. But Portland’s Black police chief and others have questioned that claim, saying it’s been undermined by rioting, destruction and assaults against law enforcement officers.
At his news conference, President Trump seemed to agree.
“These are really sick, disturbed people,” he said of the rioters, the Washington Times reported.
Trump also praised federal agents who were recently deployed to Portland to protect a federal courthouse, saying they had done a “fantastic job,” but he added those agents would not go beyond guarding the courthouse unless asked by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown or Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, OregonLive.com reported.
As for Wheeler, who also serves as the city’s police commissioner, Trump questioned his credibility.
“Mayor Wheeler has abdicated his duty and surrendered his city to the mob,” Trump said.

“Mayor Wheeler has abdicated his duty and surrendered his city to the mob.”
— President Trump

One night earlier, Wheeler had accused the president of deploying federal agents to city in order to create riot footage that the president could use in campaign ads. He also said that rioters who were confronting federal agents were merely playing into the president’s hands.
“If you don’t want to be a part of that, then don’t show up,” Wheeler said, addressing protesters.
On Wednesday morning, Portland police Chief Chuck Lovell condemned the rioting, claiming it was accomplishing nothing toward the goal of racial justice.
"Portlanders need to send a strong message that enough is enough," Lovell told reporters at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, according to KGW-TV in Portland. "This is not forwarding the goals that are going to lead to better outcomes for people of color. This movement is really powerful, but the violence has taken away from it. ... This is not what Portland is about. This is not what we need in our city."
Addressing reporters in New Jersey, Trump scoffed at the idea that rioters might think their actions were helping them achieve their goals.
“They look at Portland as a thing that they want,” the president said, according to OregonLive.com. “That’s what they want. Why? Who knows, doesn’t matter. It’s a different thinking but it’s a mess.”
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and Brie Stimson contributed to this story.

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Trump bans dealings with Chinese owners of TikTok, WeChat

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping but vague ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of social media apps TikTok and WeChat on security grounds, a move China’s government criticized as “political manipulation.”

The twin executive orders issued Thursday — one for each app — add to growing U.S.-Chinese conflict over technology and security. They take effect in 45 days and could bar the popular apps from the Apple and Google app stores, effectively removing them from U.S. distribution.

China’s foreign ministry expressed opposition but gave no indication whether Beijing might retaliate.

Earlier, Trump threatened a deadline of Sept. 15 to “close down” TikTok in the United States unless Microsoft Corp. or another company acquires it.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd., is popular for its short, catchy videos. The company says it has 100 million users in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide.

The Trump administration has expressed concern Chinese social media services could provide American users’ personal information to Chinese authorities, though it has given no evidence TikTok did that. 

Instead, officials point to the Communist Party’s ability to compel cooperation from Chinese companies. U.S. regulators cited similar security concerns last year when the Chinese owner of Grindr was ordered to sell the dating app.

In a statement, TikTok expressed shock at the order and complained it violates U.S. law. The company said it doesn’t store American user data in China and never has given it to Beijing or censored content at the government’s request.

TikTok said it spent nearly a year trying to reach a “constructive solution” but the Trump administration “paid no attention to facts” and tried improperly to insert itself into business negotiations. TikTok said it would “pursue all remedies” available to ensure the company and its users are “are treated fairly.”

WeChat’s owner, Tencent, the most valuable Asian technology company, and Microsoft declined to comment.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced an expansion of the U.S. crackdown on Chinese technology to include barring Chinese apps from U.S. app stores, citing alleged security threats and calling out TikTok and WeChat by name.

The Chinese foreign ministry accused Washington of “political manipulation” and said the moves will hurt American companies and consumers.

“The United States is using national security as an excuse, frequently abuses national power and unreasonably suppresses companies of other countries,” said a ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. “This is an outright hegemonic act. China is firmly opposed to it.”

Wang, who didn’t mention TikTok or any other company by name, called on the Trump administration to “correct its wrongdoing” but gave no indication how Beijing might respond.

Trump’s orders say the Chinese-owned apps “threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” They cite the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act and call on the Commerce secretary to define the banned dealings by Sept. 15.

WeChat, known in Chinese as Weixin, is a hugely popular messaging app that links to finance and other services. It has more than 1 billion users. Around the world, many people of Chinese descent use WeChat to stay in touch with friends and family and to conduct business in mainland China.

Within China, WeChat is censored and expected to adhere to content restrictions set by authorities. The Citizen Lab internet watchdog group in Toronto says WeChat monitors files and images shared abroad to aid its censorship in China.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. also owns parts or all of major game companies like Epic Games, publisher of Fortnite, a major video game hit, and Riot Games, which is behind League of Legends.

The Trump administration already was embroiled in a tariff war with Beijing over its technology ambitions. Washington has blocked acquisitions of some U.S. assets by Chinese buyers and has cut off most access to American components and other technology for Huawei Technologies Ltd., a maker of smartphones and network equipment that is China’s first global tech brand.

China-backed hackers have been blamed for breaches of U.S. federal databases and the credit agency Equifax.

In China, the Communist Party limits what foreign tech companies can do and blocks access to the Google search engine, Facebook, Twitter and other social media, along with thousands of websites operated by news organizations and human rights, pro-democracy and other activist groups.

The Communist Party has used the entirely state-controlled press to encourage public anger at Trump’s actions.

“I don’t want to use American products any more,” said Sun Fanyu, an insurance salesperson in Beijing. “I will support domestic substitute products.”

Leading mobile security experts say TikTok is no more intrusive in its harvesting of user data and monitoring of user activity than U.S. apps owned by Facebook and Google.

“The U.S. thinking is that anything that is Chinese is suspect,” said Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing. “They’re being targeted not because of what they’ve done, but who they are.”

The order doesn’t seem to ban Americans from using TikTok, which would be nearly impossible to enforce, said Kirsten Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame.

“This is a pretty broad and pretty quick expansion of the technology Cold War between the U.S. and China,” said Steven Weber, faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Long Term Cybersecurity.

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AP reporters Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, Calif., Mae Anderson in New York, Frank Bajak in Boston, Joe McDonald in Beijing and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this article.