Trump looks to hook up America to a trillion-dollar cash IV

'We're going big'

President Donald Trump can't order up a cure for the surging COVID-19 coronavirus scourge any time soon, so he's going to try to get Americans fast relief for their rapidly worsening economic symptoms.

"We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who joined Trump at a White House news conference on Tuesday. “Americans need cash now, and the president wants to get cash out now — and I mean 'now' in the next two weeks." How much cash would go to who was still up in the air.

Trump also is urging Congress to pass a stimulus package with a price tag near $1 trillion in a matter of days, including help for hardest-hit industries such as airlines. "We’re going big,” Trump said. “I think we want to get it done and have a big infusion, as opposed to going through little meetings every couple of days."

However, reservations expressed by Democrats over various aspects of the package, including big-business bailouts, suggested that it could take some time to arrive at a bipartisan agreement that could pass both chambers of Congress. "The aid has to be workers first,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, not what happened in 2008, when the big banks took precedence in a financial meltdown.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was still trying to get the Democratic-led House’s $100 billion package of sick pay, emergency food and free testing through his chamber. He said he told hesitant Republicans "to gag and vote for it anyway, even if they think it has some shortcomings," which he said could be addressed later.

Some Democrats complained that "technical" changes to the House bill at Mnuchin's urging reduced the scope of the paid leave program. “I think the changes the Republicans insisted on made this far worse,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida. “The intent of the package was to provide workers the support they needed to stay home and prevent the spread of this disease."

The haggling will continue even as McConnell pledged, “We’re going to move here in warp speed for the Senate, which almost never does anything quickly.” Trump's willingness to go "big" was something of a conversion. Three weeks ago, when Trump was still doubting how bad it would get, the president bristled when his proposal to spend $2.5 billion on coronavirus response received bipartisan criticism as being not enough. For Newsday's complete coverage on the pandemic, click here.

Trump and Cuomo make nice

The president and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday put their feud in quarantine, which could pay off in freeing up more federal aid for New York's efforts to handle the exploding number of coronavirus cases in the state.

After another morning tweet in which Trump chided Cuomo, the two sons of Queens spoke, and Trump changed his tune during the news conference.

“With respect to Governor Cuomo, we had a really good talk this morning,” he said. “We’re both doing a really good job.”

On Cuomo's request for help from the Army Corps of Engineers to expand hospital capacity, Trump said, "The state is working on it very hard themselves, but we'll probably supplement what they're doing."

Cuomo said he had "put my hand out in partnership” with Trump, and “I think the president was 100% sincere in saying that he wanted to work together … in a spirit of cooperation.”

Janison: Flattening the blame curve

Carelessly casting blame has been a Trump method of operation from the get-go, writes Newsday's Dan Janison.

Now he has good reason to fear that current and future presidential contenders may attack him effectively on the current global health crisis, and use facts to do it.

Of late, the president has showed a glimmer of an effort, if not to swear off finger-pointing entirely, then at least flatten the blame curve a little. He tempered two days of tweets trashing Cuomo with the pivot to praise.

Why can't he stick with calls for unity and give the attack tweets a rest? "I only do that when I have to respond," Trump said. "And I will continue to do that. If they are not going to play fair, because they have the media on their side, I don't. I just have me."

He saw it coming?

Trump told reporters Tuesday: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic … I've always viewed it as very serious."

That's not what he said over and over and over again, in January ("It’s one person coming in from China."), February ("We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people.") and earlier this month ("I'm not concerned at all.").

A New York Times examination of the White House response found it shaped by a culture of indecision, turf fights and distrust of expertise. While some of his officials sounded alarms, Trump treated the crisis as day-to-day public relations problems, the report said.

On one level, Trump still does, according to his comments at the news conference. "The only thing we haven’t done well is to get good press. We’ve done a fantastic job, but it hasn’t been appreciated," he said.

Biden on a roll

Joe Biden easily swept Democratic primaries in Florida, Illinois and Arizona on Tuesday night, expanding his lead over Bernie Sanders in delegates for the party's 2020 Democratic nomination.

For Sanders, a path to victory was vanishing. He faces a hard decision on whether to stay in a race in which traditional campaigning is out of the question during the pandemic.

Biden, speaking on livestreamed video, spoke largely about the coronavirus crisis. “Tackling this pandemic is a national emergency, akin to fighting a war,” he said. Reaching out to his opponents' supporters, the former vice president said: "To the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders: I hear you. I know what’s at stake.”

Ohio, the fourth primary scheduled for Tuesday, put off its balloting until June because of coronavirus concerns.

Catch up with the voting tallies here and see Newsday's delegate tracker here for the latest count.

Slurred speech

Trump of late has been referring to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus." He defended it Tuesday as payback for disinformation from Beijing suggesting the virus came from the U.S. military and said, "It did come from China, so I think it's a very accurate term.” China is where the first big outbreak was found.

That's no alibi for why an unnamed official at the White House, while speaking to Weijia Jiang, a CBS News correspondent based there, referred to the disease as the “Kung-Flu,” according to her tweet about the encounter. "Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back,” Jiang wrote on Twitter.

Asian Americans have faced insults, harassment and attacks during this crisis. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) has called out Republican lawmakers for using such phrases as "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus," denouncing it as “embarrassing, disrespectful, offensive and downright disgusting.”

What else is happening:

• Trump donors were asked to help cover the tab for a $50,000 Mar-a-Lago birthday party for Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, The New York Times reported.
• White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Monday that she's under self-quarantine and working from home, after coming into contact during that Mar-a-Lago trip with members of a Brazilian delegation that included individuals who have tested positive for coronavirus. The decision was made "out of an abundance of caution," she said.
• Another of the Mar-a-Lago attendees, outgoing acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, is under voluntary self-isolation after his niece, who lives with him in Washington, came in contact with one of the Brazilian officials. His test result was negative on Friday.
• Imprisoned former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is asking a federal judge to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. His lawyer, Roger Bennet Adler, cited an "enhanced risk of catching coronavirus” in the upstate lockup.
• Biden received Secret Service protection starting Tuesday, CNN reported. So far, there's no plan to cover Sanders, too.
• Trump, who faced little primary opposition for his reelection bid, clinched the Republican Party nomination on Tuesday.