‘Unprecedented decision’ by Trump to require his name on stimulus checks could slow delivery to millions: report

On Tuesday, The Washington Postreported that the Treasury Department will be requiring every physical stimulus check being sent out to bear President Donald Trump's name.

"The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, 'President Donald J. Trump' will appear on the left side of the payment," reported Lisa Rein.

In addition to being highly unusual — usually such checks are signed by a Treasury official to prevent the appearance of partisanship — the move is likely to delay the payments.

"The decision to have the paper checks bear Trump’s name, in the works for weeks, according to a Treasury official, was announced early Tuesday to the IRS’s information technology team," wrote Rein. "The team, working from home, is now racing to implement a programming change that two senior officials said will probably lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of paper checks. They are scheduled to be sent Thursday to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for printing and issuing."

The Treasury Department denies there will be any delay — but officials told Rein that the coding changes required by the decision will slow down the first set of checks.

People who filed taxes this year will generally be receiving the payments as a direct deposit. Paper checks will only go out to taxpayers for whom banking information is unavailable — many of whom are low-income.

Some current and former IRS officials were critical of the decision.

“Taxes are supposed to be nonpolitical, and it’s that simple,” said former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. "It's absolutely unprecedented." Chad Hooper, who heads up the IRS' Professional Managers Association, blasted it as "an abuse of government resources," and said "In this time of need for additional resources, anything that takes our focus from getting those checks out the door and hampers the equitable, fair administration of the tax code is not something we can support."

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