Hundreds of thousands of $1,200 bailout payments have been caught in ‘snafus’ Donald Trump admits – then dismisses $1 BILLION in waste as ‘a fantastic job for government’

  • Relatives of dead Americans report receiving stimulus payments
  • They are included in the coronavirus bailout package
  • Trump hailed program for getting out 80 million payments 
  • Trump acknowledged SNAFUs but said it was ‘less than 1 per cent’ 
  • ‘Sometimes you to send a check to somebody wrong’
  • Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 01:20 BST, 18 April 2020 | Updated: 03:34 BST, 18 April 2020

President Donald Trump acknowledged ‘snafus’ in the nation’s crash plan to get $1,200 checks out to Americans hurt by the coronavirus – even admitting some taxpayer money went to dead people. 

‘Sometimes you to send a check to somebody wrong,’ Trump said at a Friday night press briefing that ran until 8 pm. 

‘Sometimes people are listed. They die, and they get a check. That can happen. You’re talking about,   I guess the number is about 80 million people [receiving aid]. ‘Sure, we’ll get that back. Everything we are going to get back, but it is a tiny amount and they have done a fantastic job. This was done in a few days,’ Trump said. 

The president was asked at a Friday night briefing about the program. NBC News reported that some checks went to people who were no longer alive. One man said his mom, who died in August, got a check. 

'Sometimes you to send a check to somebody wrong,' President Trump said at a Friday night press briefing, acknowledging some economic recovery payments went to dead people

‘Sometimes you to send a check to somebody wrong,’ President Trump said at a Friday night press briefing, acknowledging some economic recovery payments went to dead people

Some amount of error is always expected, said Trump, who touted an error rate of sub 1 percent. The network even reported that the administration is looking into whether people who died as late as last year might be eligible for the payment. 

Some government checks are going to dead people, the president said

Some government checks are going to dead people, the president said

Some government checks are going to dead people, the president said 

People queue to pick up fresh food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giveaway of 2,000 boxes of groceries, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 9, 2020

People queue to pick up fresh food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giveaway of 2,000 boxes of groceries, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 9, 2020

People queue to pick up fresh food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giveaway of 2,000 boxes of groceries, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 9, 2020

‘It’s less than 1 per cent and the snafus are very minor,’ Trump said. ‘They were 80 million payments went out over a few days. They caught certain mistakes that they made, but this is a tiny amount of mistakes,’ Trump said, after a report noted 1 per cent could be as many as 800,000 mistakes. 

‘I can tell you mistakes were made in government where wrong countries were signed, okay. … Any mistake that was made, they have been caught and it is less than 1 per cent. That’s a very good percentage’

Then he attacked the Obama administration for mistakes in the rollout of its website years ago. ‘How about the Obama website? The Obamacare website where they spent $5 billion where they built a website you could have built for peanuts?’ he said. 

The government rushed to push out the money to contend with the economic havoc wrought by the virus, anticipating millions of unemployed and economic hardship. It was a part of a package of more than $2 trillion. 

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