We told you Nancy Pelosi had the upper hand

| 11:05 pm EDT August 10, 2020
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

When Donald Trump announced this weekend that he was signing four executive orders on economic relief, they were plainly illegal and wouldn’t stand a chance in court. They were also certain to prove unpopular, because they defunded Social Security and Medicare.

At the time, Palmer Report pointed out that Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats still had the upper hand in stimulus negotiations, because Trump’s executive orders (three of which turned out to merely be “executive actions”) were mere paper tigers. Sure enough, the AP is now reporting that Trump’s guy Steve Mnuchin is still trying to cut a deal with House Democrats, which proves that Team Trump knows the executive orders aren’t much of a strategy. That same report says that Pelosi isn’t caving even slightly in her demands, which demonstrates that she knows she still has the upper hand in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Pelosi made her position clear on the executive orders when she retweeted this from an economic expert on Monday: “Just fyi, here’s my take on Trump’s exec actions. Summarizing a lot of what’s out there plus an overview take on the politics. Bottom line, they run the gamut from toothless, inadequate, unimplementable, and one has the long run potential to defund Social Security.”