After the Senate passed a COVID-19 relief package Saturday night that includes $1,400 stimulus checks, right-wing pastor Shane Vaughn of First Harvest Ministries in Waveland, Mississippi, posted a video on YouTube in which he declared that the checks show that former President Donald Trump continues to bless the nation even though he is no longer in office.
Vaughn said that, as a conservative, he is personally opposed to the relief package and stimulus checks on principle because he believes that “in hard times, I dig my own self out.” Nonetheless, he said that if anyone is going to get the credit for them, it should be Trump.
“The Democrats are all excited about this, but this was Donald Trump’s idea, not theirs,” Vaughn said. “Does anybody not remember when Donald Trump came to the podium because they were trying to send all of our money overseas? Do you not remember when he walked out, refused to sign the stimulus package because it only gave, I believe, $1,200 to each person?”
“Donald Trump said, ‘If we’re gonna blow this money anyway, then blow it on our people,'” Vaughn continued. “And so ladies and gentlemen, that bill that was passed today where you’re getting all this money, that was an offering from our late president to every one of you. … So even as Donald Trump has left office, his blessing to America has continued.”
For the record, the push for $2,000 stimulus checks was not, as Vaughn claimed, “Donald Trump’s idea”; it was a proposal pushed by Democrats that Trump only eventually embraced near the end of his term.
