Julia Schwed ‘21, Commentary Editor 

The coronavirus pandemic has brought suffering to Americans on a scale greater than any of us have seen before. As of April 17, 2020, more than 710,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States, and more than 37,000 Americans have died from the virus. COVID-19 has also created severe economic hardships for a huge number of Americans who have lost their jobs as the country shut down to slow the spread of this disease. In the first four weeks after governors implemented severe shutdown measures, 20 million Americans filed for unemployment.  

On March 26, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES). CARES is a two trillion-dollar stimulus package, passed in an effort to mitigate the economic harm caused by the pandemic. Through CARES, approximately 80 percent of Americans will receive money from the government to help with the economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump signed the bill into law on March 27, 2020. 

While many Americans will receive their relief funds electronically, about five million Americans will receive a check in the mail. According to The Washington Post, shortly after signing the CARES Act, President Trump told his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, that he wanted to have his signature on the checks. However, because Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations state that checks issued by the Treasury Department must be signed by a civil servant who is authorized as a designated disbursing officer, President Trump was not legally authorized to sign the checks. These regulations are in place in order to prevent the improper use of government funds. 

Of course, President Trump is not one to let government regulations get in the way of self-promotion. On April 15, the Treasury Department informed the IRS that the checks would include President Trump’s name on the memo line. This change forced IRS computer programmers and technology staff to work frantically to change the computer programs to add Trump’s name to the checks. Not surprisingly, it has been reported that the addition of Trump’s name to the checks may delay the sending of the checks, causing millions of Americans to wait for money needed to combat the devastation caused by COVID-19. 

Trump is not the first president to send economic relief to American families, but he is the first to be so focused on self-promotion that he worked around government regulations to ensure that his name appeared on the check. In 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act provided for American taxpayers to receive a rebate check. In February 2008, President Bush signed the Economic Stimulus Act, which provided checks to many Americans. Unlike President Trump, President Bush did not force his name onto either set of checks.

There are good reasons why these regulations exist, and why past presidents have adhered to them. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said that he would have resigned had President Clinton asked him to put his name on a government check. Secretary Summers explained that such an act “is using the government as a propaganda tool.” 

On April 3rd President Trump denied that he had asked to sign the checks, but The Washington Post reported that the IRS already was working on trying to add his name to the checks at the time of the denial. Moreover, his subsequent statements make clear that this extraordinary measure is being done at Trump’s request. For example, when asked about his name appearing on the memo line, Trump replied: “I’m sure people will be very happy to get a big, fat, beautiful check and my name is on it.” Similarly, Trump said “I have been working on this pandemic day in, day out, and I deserve total credit for it.” If Trump wants total credit, maybe he should sign the death certificates of the 37,000, and counting, Americans who have died from this virus.