Senate Republicans haven't supported additional stimulus payments. Trump says it's Democrats' fault.

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

President Trump doesn't seem to be connecting with his own party on this one.

As a form of economic relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, Trump on Wednesday called for another round of direct stimulus payments for individual Americans, blaming "heartless" Democrats for the fact that there haven't been any since the CARES Act was passed in March. The criticism isn't unusual — Trump, his allies, and the GOP at large have suggested Democrats are holding up coronavirus relief negotiations to push a larger party agenda through. But the president's comments also make it seem like Republicans are championing direct payments — "Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans," he tweeted — when, recently, that hasn't been the direction GOP lawmakers have been moving.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.