Trump reluctantly signs COVID aid, sparks fresh fight in GOP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shelving his objections, President Donald Trump has signed a $2 trillionplus COVID-19 and annual federal spending package providing relief for millions of Americans, even as Congress returns to confront the White House on remaining priorities in a rare end-ofsession showdown.

Trump appears to have accomplished little, if anything, from the days of drama over his refusal to accept the sweeping bipartisan deal. While the president’s demands for larger $2,000 pandemic relief checks seem destined to fail, his push served up a political opportunity for Democrats, who support the larger stipends and are forcing Trump’s Republican allies into a tough spot.

On Monday, the Democratic-led House is set to vote to boost the $600 payments to $2,000, sending a new bill to the Senate. There, Republicans have the majority but oppose more spending and are likely to defeat the effort.

The showdown more symbol substance, and offers than it’s not expected to alter the massive package that Trump reluctantly signed into law late Sunday in Florida, where he is spending the holidays. The $900 billion in COVID aid and $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown that otherwise would have started Tuesday, in the midst of the public health crisis.

Aside from added unemployment benefits and relief payments to families, the package provides money for vaccine distribution, businesses, transit systems and much more. It extends pandemic-era protections against evictions as well.

Together with votes Monday and Tuesday to override Trump’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, the action is perhaps the last standoff of the president’s final days in office as he imposes fresh demands and disputes the results of the presidential election. The new Congress is set to be sworn in Sunday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., seized on the divide between the president and his party, urging Trump to put pressure on his Senate GOP allies to pass the bill.

“The President must immediately call on Congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to join him and Democrats in support of our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000,” Pelosi said in a tweet.

Trump’s sudden decision to sign the bill came as he faced escalating criticism