Americans deserved the stimulus checks they have received, according to former President Donald Trump, who added China should have to pay for it for the global pandemic they released.
"I like people getting the checks," Trump told Rita Cosby on 77 WABC AM-N.Y. in a wide-ranging interview Thursday night. I thought it was good. And frankly, I'm OK. with that, because we went through a lot with the China virus, and we went through a lot."
Massive spending plans are generally derided by conservatives and Trump, particularly amid all of the spending proposals being put forth by President Joe Biden in his first few months, but Trump wanted the stimulus payments at the end of his administration to be $2,000.
Biden passed that in a Democrat-controlled Congress, after Republicans declined to do so in a split Congress in the first months of the Trump administration.
Ultimately, though, China should have to pay for the COVID-19 pandemic it unleashed on the world, Trump told Cosby.
"China should have to pay us for that," Trump said. "It's what they've done. I don't think they did it on purpose, but, you know, they may have and something should happen.
"You know, it's just ridiculous what they've done to the world by allowing that to escape, that horrible virus that escaped. So, you know, just not gonna happen through Biden – I can tell you that."
Trump also lamented the politicization of the COVID-19 restrictions, protocols, and lockdowns that hurt Americans in blue states.
"I think the closures hurt if you look at Florida, if you look at Texas, if you look at certain states all run by Republicans, they were much more open and some were totally open," Trump said. "And they did much better medically, and from the standpoint of life and death, they did much better – and illness itself much better than these closed states when you look at New York and various other places.
"So it's been pretty amazing when you think of it, but places like Florida, and very much Texas, and I can name a lot of them, South Dakota. A lot of places they did very well. And they were open or, or at least pretty open and in some cases completely open.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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