Trump’s name will be printed on stimulus checks and he announced a 200-member advisory panel.
At the president suggestion, his name will appear on the economic stimulus checks that will be mailed to millions of Americans beginning next month, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday. Adding Mr. Trump’s name is a break from protocol, and it will appear on the “memo” section of the check because Mr. Trump is not legally authorized to sign such disbursements.
A Treasury official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said adding the president’s name would not delay the disbursements, set to begin the week of May 4 for up to 20 weeks. Some Americans who are set to receive the stimulus funds through direct deposit will not even see the checks.
The addition of the president’s name to the stimulus checks comes at a time when Mr. Trump is trying to assert control of the country’s plan to reopen the economy after being decimated by the virus. Earlier this week, he claimed he had “total” authority on this matter, even though these decisions are made by the states.
Mr. Trump announced a list of adviserswith varied backgrounds who he said will counsel him on how and when to reopen the economy, a mix that includes more than 200 prominent business owners and leaders, labor union executives, the president of the United States Tennis Association, and the commissioner of the W.N.B.A. Also on the list was Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who owns The Washington Post and who is a frequent target of the president’s criticism, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots.
During his Rose Garden announcement on Tuesday, Mr. Trump was vague about whether everyone on the list had agreed to serve on the task force or were even aware they were on it. At least one person on the list, who asked not to be identified for fear of angering the White House, said that no request had been made to join the list, and that there had been no advance notice of an announcement.
