The utter shamelessness has no bottom at all. Trump didn’t put this legislation together. It is not his money. He had some – “some” – influence on the stimulus package that would be passed, but less than Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy. And yet, damn it, checks are going out to the American people and Trump wants those people to believe it is coming from him, and him alone. He is king.

The Wall Street Journal covers the details, even though there are not all that many to cover. It is readily apparent what is happening here.

“Mr. Trump has told people he wants his signature to appear on the direct payment checks that will go out to many Americans in the coming weeks, according to an administration official.”

“Normally, a civil servant — the disbursing officer for the payment center — would sign federal checks, said Don Hammond, a former senior Treasury Department official.”

Yes but normally we don’t have a president who believes himself to be king, dear leader, Saddam. These checks are coming from the royal treasury don’t you know? It would otherwise be Trump’s money.

It may seem like a small thing. It is not. The lower-information voter, meaning most people with lives too busy to follow the news on an hourly basis, people that don’t read the brilliant analysis here at Flare (whoops, almost Trumpian, there), might well believe that it was Trump who put the whole thing together and had been looking out for the people all along. Little would they know that many of them would have $1200 less had the Republican plan gone through without Democratic pushback.

Things like this matter. Any president would see the benefit to it, most would die of shame before letting it happen. We cannot even be positive it is legal since it falls outside the normal channels.

As we know, Trump never lets legal niceties bother him.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom