The coronavirus stimulus checks are getting a bit of the president’s personal flair.
The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s signature to be printed on the checks the IRS sending to tens of millions of Americans — a mandate that will slow the delivery of the badly needed aid by several days, according to a report in the Washington Post.
“President Donald J. Trump” will be emblazoned on the left side of the $1,200 checks scheduled to begin heading out to 70 million Americans in the next few days, the paper reported.
Trump had reportedly pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to allow him to sign the checks, but the president is not authorized to do so.
The president’s signature has never before graced an IRS payout; checks from the Treasury Department are typically signed by a civil servant to present the payments as nonpartisan.
The payments are part of the $2.2 trillion relief package passed by Congress at the end of March intended to help laid-off or furloughed workers while providing financial relief to businesses suffering under lockdowns during the pandemic.
Another 80 million Americans will receive their “Economic Impact Payment” via direct deposits, which will not bear the president’s name, according to the outlet.
The checks are reportedly being sent to those for whom the IRS doesn’t have any banking information, typically Americans with low incomes.
The last-minute signature addition requires a programming change that must be tested before being implemented and will stall the first round of physical checks to be issued out, the Washington Post reported.
The IRS announced it had started sending the checks to Americans with direct deposits this weekend.
But a Treasury Department spokesperson denied to the paper that any such delay would be needed and said the process has moved faster than when Bush administration issued stimulus checks to stave off a recession in 2008.
“Economic Impact Payment checks are scheduled to go out on time and exactly as planned—there is absolutely no delay whatsoever,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“In fact, we expect the first checks to be in the mail early next week, which is well in advance of when the first checks went out in 2008 and well in advance of initial estimates.”
