Trump refuses to promise his own company won't get a taxpayer bailout
Written by Igor Derysh / Salon March 24, 2020
President Donald Trump declined to say whether his company would seek federal assistance from a proposed bailout fund, which Democrats decried as a “slush fund.”
“I’ve learned, let’s just see what happens,” Trump told reporters at a Sunday news briefing when asked about the Trump Organization. “Because we have to save some of these great companies.”
The comments came after Democrats balked at a $1.8 trillion stimulus bill to counter the economic calamity sparked by the coronavirus crisis. Senate Democrats blocked the bill from moving forward Sunday after calling for Republicans to guarantee that corporations would retain their workers before dipping into a $500 billion bailout fund, $425 billion of which would be distributed at the discretion of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The bill would also provide direct payments to most Americans and additional funds for states, hospitals, small businesses and unemployment insurance.
“We’re not here to create a slush fund for Donald Trump and his family or a slush fund for the Treasury Department to be able to hand out to their friends,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement.
“We’re going to give $500 billion in basically a slush fund to help industries controlled by Mnuchin with very little transparency? Is that what we ought to be doing?” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, asked.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-refuses-to-promise-his-own-company-wont-get-a-taxpayer-bailout/
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