'Unnecessary and cruel': Trump blasted for his 'will-he-or-won't-he' dance with the COVID relief bill

In an op-ed published at The Week this Monday, Joel Mathis writes that President Trump's signing the $900 billion COVID relief bill into law came only after he let unemployment benefits expire, pushing the government to the edge of a shutdown.

While Trump didn't get the $2,000 checks he demanded, he did spend several days "holding millions of Americans hostage to anxiety about their ability to pay rent and keep food on the table in the coming weeks and months. The "will-he-or-won't-he" dance with the relief bill was unnecessary, cruel, and all too Trumpian," Mathis writes.

According to Mathis, Trump is ending his tenure in the White House just like he started it -- keeping his base guessing as to what he'll do next while "inflicting terrible damage to both truth and democracy itself," simultaneously showing that he has no idea how to govern.

"Trump spent his term talking big, routinely underdelivering, and proclaiming victory anyway," Mathis writes. "He often worked to be seen doing something that looks like leading the country, but never quite got around to doing the grunt work that even presidential leadership requires. The result has been a string of failures."

Read the full op-ed over at The Week.