Trump vows to stop evictions due to COVID-19 by executive order if necessary

President Trump on Monday said he will take executive action to halt evictions if Congress doesn’t quickly pass coronavirus relief legislation.

A ban on evictions passed Congress in March but expired in July amid gridlock on Capitol Hill.

“A lot of people are going to be evicted. But I’m going to stop it because I’ll do it myself if I have to. I have a lot of powers with respect to executive orders. And we’re looking at that very seriously right now,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The lapsed moratorium protected renters who miss monthly payments and live in buildings with federally backed loans. The Aspen Institute estimated up to 23 million people could face eviction by October.

Some states, including New York, have their own eviction bans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump told reporters that Democrats are to blame for a slow start in negotiations on a new bill.

“They want bailout money. They’re not interested in the people, they’re not interested in unemployment, they’re not interested in evictions, which is a big deal, the evictions,” Trump said.

“[Democrats] are slow-rolling it. And all they’re really interested in is bailout money to bail out radical left governors and radical left mayors like in Portland and places that are so badly run — Chicago, New York City, you see what’s going on over there — bail out cities and states who have been poorly run and spent a fortune doing it. They want a trillion dollars. And we’re really not interested in that.”

Senate Republicans released the text of a $1 trillion COVID-19 package last week after talks with the White House. Democrats passed a rival $3 trillion package in the House in May that included almost $1 trillion in aid for state and local governments.

The Republican bill would give another round of $1,200 checks to most people, something included in the bill Democrats approved in May.

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