Fact Check: Stimulus Checks Not Being Held up for Donald Trump’s Name

President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady
Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Matthew Boyle
Washington, D.C.

The Washington Post published a story on Tuesday evening claiming the stimulus checks going out to the vast majority of Americans as a result of the coronavirus crisis are being held up due to the fact President Donald Trump’s name is being affixed to them.

The opening sentence of the article from Lisa Rein claims that adding Trump’s name to the checks to tens of millions of Americans is “a process that could slow their delivery by a few days.”

The article also includes a section quoting some career officials claiming this will lead to a delay:

The team, working from home, is now racing to implement a programming change that two senior IRS officials said will probably lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of paper checks. They are scheduled to be sent Thursday to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for printing and issuing.

Computer code must be changed to include the president’s name, and the system must be tested, these officials said. “Any last-minute request like this will create a downstream snarl that will result in a delay,” said Chad Hooper, a quality-control manager who serves as national president of the IRS’s Professional Managers Association.

But the idea there will be some kind of a delay is not true. Buried deeper within the piece is confirmation that the checks will not be delayed.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman, however, denied any delay and said the plan all along was to issue the checks next week.

“Economic Impact Payment checks are scheduled to go out on time and exactly as planned — there is absolutely no delay whatsoever,” the spokeswoman said in a written statement. She said this was a faster process than the stimulus checks the George W. Bush administration issued in 2008 to head off a looming recession.

“In fact, we expect the first checks to be in the mail early next week which is well in advance of when the first checks went out in 2008 and well in advance of initial estimates,” the statement said.

Multiple Treasury Department officials confirmed to Breitbart News that the claims of a delay are inaccurate. One Treasury Department official confirmed that President Trump’s name will appear on the paper checks, adding there will be no delay to make that happen.

Monica Crowley, the Treasury Department spokeswoman, also tweeted this response to the “inaccurate and misleading” Washington Post story on Wednesday:

Most Americans are getting these cash payments directly deposited into their bank accounts, if they have gotten a tax return in recent years and the IRS has their direct deposit information on file. Some Americans, however, need a paper check to be mailed to them–and the Treasury Department says these checks are going out ahead of schedule even with the addition of President Trump’s name on them.

Despite the claims from the Washington Post piece collapsing under scrutiny, many on the left and throughout the media and entertainment establishment have used this story to further attack President Trump:

A source familiar with the matter added to Breitbart News the political attacks on the president and inaccurate claims of a delay in checks going out for this purpose are par for the course for those who hate President Trump.

“This is just another attempt by the entrenched, anti-Trump bureaucracy to craft a false narrative about the president’s ego when in fact millions of Americans are already seeing their economic impact payments hit their bank accounts,” the source familiar with the process said.  “The Washington Post is the propaganda arm of the out of touch, rabid, far left and should be lambasted for sowing discord as our nation attempts to navigate this challenging economic climate. Shameful.”

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