Trump’s Name Will Appear on Virus Stimulus Checks: Treasury Spokesperson

President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the CCP virus, which causes COVID-19, in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 14, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday confirmed that President Donald Trump’s name will appear on stimulus checks that are sent out to millions of Americans to offset losses during the CCP virus pandemic.

A Treasury spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times in an email that there will be Trump’s “name on [the] memo line” of the checks.

The Washington Post and other news outlets on Tuesday reported that the president’s name will appear on the checks, which might set back the delivery date of the first batch. But another Treasury Department spokesperson said that there will no delay.

While millions of eligible Americans are slated to receive direct deposits of in their bank accounts of up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for couples, the Treasury Department expects the stimulus checks to “be in the mail early next week,” according to a spokesperson. Children under the age of 17 are eligible for $500 payments.

“Economic Impact Payment checks are scheduled to go out on time and exactly as planned—there is absolutely no delay whatsoever,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times, adding that the checks will be delivered “well in advance of when the first checks went out in 2008 and well in advance of initial estimates.”

The Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) “have worked around the clock to get fast and direct economic assistance to hardworking Americans,” said the spokesperson, while noting that during the 2008 crisis, it took the federal government two months to distribute about 800,000 payments.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin walks to the meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (not pictured) during negotiations on a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 23, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

The IRS also told news outlets, in response to the reports about the checks, that no delay will occur.

“Thanks to hard work and long hours by dedicated IRS employees, these payments are going out on schedule, as planned, without delay, to the nation,” Jodie Reynolds, an IRS spokeswoman, told CNN. “The IRS employees are delivering these payments in record time compared to previous stimulus efforts.”

The development comes as the Treasury Department is rushing to deliver stimulus payments to around 80 million people by Wednesday, April 15. The agency and the IRS launched its highly anticipated “Get My Payment” website and app for people to see their status or whether payments were deposited in their bank accounts.

Trump said he wasn’t planning to sign the Treasury-issued checks during a briefing earlier in April.

“No. Me sign? No. There’s millions of checks. I’m going to sign them? No. It’s a Trump administration initiative,” he said on April 3. “But do I want to sign them? No.”

Allen Zhong contributed to this report.