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Donald Trump on Tuesday suspended negotiations with Democratic lawmakers on coronavirus relief legislation until after the election, even as cases of the virus are on the rise across much of the country ahead of flu season.
“I have directed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major stimulus bill that focuses on working Americans and small businesses,” Trump wrote on Twitter one day after leaving a hospital stay for Treatment for COVID-19.
The news triggered an immediate liquidation in the stock market. Following Trump’s announcement to break up negotiations, US stocks fell more than 2% in afternoon trading.
Trump’s surprise move came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday during an interview with NBC’s Face the Nation that progress was being made in her negotiations with the Trump administration on a bill to take advantage of the more than $ 3 trillion in coronavirus aid enacted earlier this year.
Pelosi released a thunderous statement in the wake of the announcement, accusing Trump of “putting himself first at the expense of the country” by stopping negotiations on a new coronavirus aid package from Congress.
Pelosi said Trump “showed his true colors” by stopping talks between congressional leaders and the White House that have aimed to bring in $ 2 trillion in new aid to fight the coronavirus. The Democratic leader said that by “walking away,” Trump “was not willing to squash the virus” and is abandoning the needs of children and other Americans.
Earlier Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a business conference that America’s economic expansion was “far from complete” following the deep contraction stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Powell warned that the failure of the United States to provide more aid “would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.”
In recent days, financial markets were expecting progress toward a Covid-19 vaccine and another round of economic stimulus from Congress would boost the US economy, which has been showing signs of renewed weakness.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had been talking regularly for the past week as they tried to bridge the gap between a recent Democratic call for around $ 2.2 trillion in new spending to fight the pandemic and strengthen the economy, versus about $ 1.6 billion sought by the administration.
However, it was unclear whether enough Senate Republicans would have supported any deal.
