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The Real Reason Trump Wants $2,000 Relief Checks

 3 years ago
source link: https://medium.com/discourse/the-real-reason-trump-wants-2-000-relief-checks-879d52db100e
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POLITICS

The Real Reason Trump Wants $2,000 Relief Checks

The 3D chess moves with Mitch McConnell are all self-serving

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Senator Mitch McConnell & President Trump, January 4, 2018 / Credit: Office of Senator Mitch McConnell, Public domain

President Donald Trump’s rejections of the $900 billion stimulus deal began last week on December 21st when he tweeted, “I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill.” This was his first mention of displeasure with the package, proposed by his very own stunned Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had been negotiating with both Republicans and Democrats.

The eleventh-hour challenges of the relief bill, which Trump ultimately signed over the weekend, could have been raised earlier, which certainly raises questions about his motives. Did he really want to get our great people more money? Possibly. Though later communications made between trips to the links revealed Trump’s true intentions.

Yesterday, Trump railed against Republicans and threatened them to do the “right thing” by increasing the approved $600 stimulus relief payments to $2000. But his intent became known in the third sentence of the tweet. Because as always, Trump telegraphs his motivations with transparency.

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Source: Author screengrab of Twitter 12/30/2020

Positioned as an aside, he griped, “also, get rid of Section 230” and “don’t let the Democrats steal the presidential election.” These are the two items he really wants.

“McConnell’s new bill all but makes the $2000 relief checks dead on arrival, but Trump never cared about the increased stimulus payments. This was his 3D chess move all along.”

Repealing Section 230, an issue that nobody awaiting stimulus checks cares about, has now become a bargaining chip in the process. The law, which has been on the books since 1996 under the Communications Decency Act, protects social platforms like Twitter and Facebook from lawsuits over content posted by end-users.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Judiciary Committee that scrutinized Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey during hearings earlier this year, said, “We have to find a way when Twitter and Facebook make a decision about what’s reliable and what’s not, what to keep up and what to keep down, that there is transparency in the system.”

Even with legal shields, the big tech platforms have stepped up their approach to content moderation, much to Trump’s disappointment. The President has soured on Facebook and Twitter as of late as they have censored much of his communications or added disclaimers — many related to vaccination, coronavirus, and the election results. According to Forbes, half of Trump’s posts on both platforms were flagged as misinformation since election day as he continued to falsely declare victory.

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Source: Author screengrab of Twitter 12/30/2020

Other Trump tweets have been flagged as glorifying violence.

$2,000 relief is DOA

Republicans have not been in favor of larger stimulus checks. So, it may seem odd at first blush that Trump would appear to side with Democrats, rail against the GOP, and force Mitch McConnell into a corner. But there is a method to the dumpster fire madness.

He baited Republicans into lumping the provisions together in yesterday’s tweet, and that’s exactly what senate majority leader McConnell has done. Today, McConnell introduced a new bill and said that he would not consider increasing the $600 payments separately from President Trump’s demands on election security and eliminating legal protections to social media companies. A separate bill has “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate,” he said.

McConnell’s new bill all but makes the $2000 relief checks dead on arrival, but Trump never cared about the increased stimulus payments. This was his 3D chess move all along.

McConnell and Republicans now have a way out of the corner that Trump painted. They can vote for the increased stimulus, knowing that Democrats will reject the combined McConnell bill. Republicans can then save face by appearing to vote with, rather than against Trump and tell their constituents, “at least we tried to get more for you.”

For his part, Trump will declare he worked hard for great people, but it was the Democrats who kept Americans from getting increased payments. This might even pay dividends in the upcoming Georgia senate runoff elections.

Alternatively, if the combined bill does pass — it will not — Trump still gets to declare victory. He’d secure his primary objective by sticking it to social media, which censored him, and he’d look like a hero by lobbying for larger payments. He’ll print his name on the checks too. Either way, it’s a win-win for Trump.

Even so, this is still a case of slit your nose to spite your face. If Section 230 protections were eliminated and social platforms were liable for the user content shared on their platforms, they’d be even more vigilant in flagging posts to mitigate their risks of legal exposure. With Trump’s posting record, his Twitter feed would become a ghost town as they’d flag his content left and right.


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