President Trump yesterday threatened to take executive action to extend an eviction moratorium, suspend collection of the payroll tax and boost unemployment benefits unless a coronavirus relief deal can be reached quickly with Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Wall Street Journal reported. And in a sign the White House could be preparing to act, the Trump administration has asked federal agencies to identify all of the money they have not yet spent from the $2 trillion Cares Act, which passed in March, according to two people briefed on the effort. White House officials are trying to determine whether this money could be redirected and used for other purposes, such as temporary unemployment benefits or the eviction moratorium. The president has been floating the possibility of acting unilaterally for several days, but he detailed his specific plans for the first time yeseterday at the beginning of a coronavirus news conference at the White House. It came as negotiations continued between top Trump administration officials and congressional Democrats, but agreement remained elusive. “We’re negotiating right now as we speak and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said. “In the meantime, my administration is exploring executive actions to provide protections against eviction.... As well as additional relief to those who are unemployed as a result of the virus. Very importantly, I’m also looking at a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax.” It’s unclear how far Trump could actually go on his own, and some allies have described the threat of executive action as a way to gain leverage over Democrats in the talks. Administration officials and congressional Democrats agreed earlier this week to try to make a deal by Friday to pass legislation next week, but multiple disagreements remain between the two sides so it’s unclear whether that is a realistic goal. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said earlier Wednesday that if no deal was struck by Friday, further negotiation would be pointless and Trump would act on his own. But Democrats insisted they wanted to keep negotiating until they could reach agreement on an overall relief bill.
