Social media users have shared posts claiming that former US President Donald Trump’s signature will appear on the new stimulus checks because the Biden government just wanted to get the checks out quickly. This claim is false: the Biden government has said that US President Joe Biden’s signature will not be with the checks because they want to produce it quickly, but the US Treasury has confirmed to Reuters Trump’s signature, which on previous stimulus checks were when he was president will also not be on the new stimulus checks.
The posts (here, here, here) show a screenshot or the text of a tweet posted on March 13, 2021 (here), which says: “The signature of Donald J. Trump is therefore about the new stimulus checks … It’s getting super weird now … The Biden administration apologizes …” I just wanted to get the checks out “” If alleged evidence links some social media users to an article by The DC Patriot (here), which sets out the decision not to include Biden’s signature. It also says that Trump’s signature was on the stimulus checks when he was president, but that does not say that it goes on the new stimulus checks.
The government offers $ 1,400 direct payments to most Americans as part of the $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 pandemic bill, one of the largest economic stimulus measures in U.S. history, passed into law on March 11, 2021 (here) has been signed. The first tranche of $ 1,400 stimulus payments was processed on March 12, with additional large amounts of payments to be sent via direct deposits or by mail as checks or debit cards in the coming weeks, Treasury and Internal Revenue Service officials (here) said.
Treasury spokeswoman Alexandra LaManna told Reuters in an email: “Neither President Trump’s name nor his signature will be on the payments.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference on March 9 that Biden’s signature would not appear in the interest of speed on these round of stimulus tests: ‘We are doing everything in our power to speed up payments and not delay, this is why the president’s name will not appear on the memorandum of these round stimulus checks. The checks will be signed by a career officer at the Bureau of Fiscal Service. ”(Here).
There were more than three weeks delay for paper checks, after changes were made to print the then President Trump’s name on the $ 1,200 electronic payments to taxpayers in April 2020 as part of the aid package of the $ 2.3 billion CARES law that March signed. 27 (here). Neither Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, or Republican George W. Bush before him put their names on stimulus checks during their White House term (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. The U.S. Treasury has confirmed to Reuters that neither Trump’s name nor signature will appear on the stimulus checks. Biden’s signature will also not appear on the checks to expedite the process.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.