The Past 24 Hours Or So

Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Updates

• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that the Trump administration was considering offsetting the economic burden of the coronavirus pandemic by “immediately” cutting checks to Americans.

Mnuchin, speaking at a White House press conference, did not say how much money Americans could potentially expect to receive, and indicated that the administration could seek to exclude those who are well-off from receiving payments.

• Taxpayers will get a three-month reprieve to pay the income taxes they owe for 2019, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday at a press conference.

As part of its coronavirus response, the federal government will give filers 90 days to pay income taxes due on up to $1 million in tax owed, Mnuchin said in Washington. The reprieve on that amount would cover many pass-through entities and small businesses, he said. Corporate filers would get the same length of time to pay amounts due on up to $10 million in taxes owed, Mnuchin said.

• Trump today stated: “I’ve felt it was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries…I have always viewed it as very serious.” This is contrary to what he has said just weeks ago accusing the “fake news media” and Democrats of inflaming the situation and declaring it “their new hoax.”

• A ventilator manufacturer, Ventec Life Systems, a Bothell, WA. firm that makes ventilators used in hospitals, homes and ambulances, could increase production by 500%; but, the U.S. government  hasn’t put in an order. Without an order, there will be no ramp up of production.

• Jared Kushner repeatedly advised President Trump that the media’s coverage was exaggerating the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.

• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Republican Senators Tuesday that without government intervention the U.S. could hit 20 percent unemployment because of the current pandemic.

• Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, asked a federal judge to allow him to serve his three-year prison sentence in home confinement because of how unsafe prison facilities are during the coronavirus pandemic, using his request to attack President Trump’s job addressing the virus and saying there is an “absence of Presidential leadership.”

• The Trump administration is reportedly planning to turn back all asylum seekers at both the northern and southern borders over concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak.

• The federal government is in talks with Facebook, Google and other tech companies about ways to use smartphone location data to tackle the coronavirus. Washington is reportedly interested in using the data to better understand how the virus spreads and to see whether people are practicing social distancing.