Trump pulls plug on COVID-19 relief talks

Trump pulls plug on COVID-19 relief talks

In a shocking move one day after leaving the hospital from a COVID-19 infection, President Trump ordered Republicans to walk away from economic stimulus talks.

Conway G.

Gittens has the details.

In a move that stunned Washington and Wall Street Tuesday - President Donald Trump put the kibosh on negotiations with Democrats over additional economic stimulus for a nation reeling from a health crisis with millions of Americans unemployed.

In a series of tweets, Trump wrote, "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." The decision to back away from talks came as a surprise.

There were many who thought Trump's hospitalization last week due to his COVID-19 infection would make a deal more likely....but one-day after his release from the hospital that appears not to be the case.

Markets quickly tumbled on the news with the airline sector particularly hit hard.

Airlines have already started laying off tens of thousands of their employees and are begging for additional financial help to offset the plummet in air travel caused by the health crisis.

But it's not airlines alone that need help.

Hours before Trump ended the talks, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a group of business economists that more stimulus from the federal government is a must.

“The risks of overdoing it seem for now to be smaller, even if policy actions ultimately proved to be greater than needed.

They will not go to waste.

The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods.” As of Monday, the Democrats were pushing a wide-ranging $2.2 trillion stimulus package with aid for the jobless, industries large and small, and for healthcare.

Republicans have wanted a smaller $1.6 trillion package.

Trump, in a tweet blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the breakdown... but Pelosi fired back in a statement, saying Trump's decision to walk away from stimulus talks shows the White House is in "complete disarray" and that Trump is putting himself first at the expense of the country.

Trump's decision to pull the plug on the stimulus talks comes amid new polls showing him losing ground to Joe Biden in national polls as well as in some key battleground states.