Trump and Mitch McConnell Have Secret Meeting at the White House as Deadline for Stimulus Plan Looms

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell held an unscheduled meeting at the White House on Monday along with other senior Republicans. They were reportedly discussing the upcoming stimulus bill.

The Senate Majority Leader met with the President, according to CNN’s Manu Raju, who shared a photo on Twitter. Also in attendance were House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

The meeting was apparently not planned in advance, despite the presence of the most senior members of the Republican Party. The impromptu event may not bode well for McConnell’s stimulus package.

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He plans to introduce the $1 trillion plan this week. This falls well short of the $3 trillion plan that Democrats in the House put forward more than two months ago.

President Trump has been pushing for the Republican legislation to contain a payroll tax, while McConnell wants to cut unemployment benefits -a move that has baffled many commentators.

The U.S. is experiencing record levels of unemployment thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Cutting assistance to jobless people at this time seems politically foolish.

A recent White House-backed ad campaign urged the unemployment to “find something new” – effectively telling Americans to just get a job despite the virus-induced recession.

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Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media