Trump, Mnuchin And Esper Okd $700M COVID Loan To Trucking Firm

Senior Trump officials, including then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, pressured Treasury Department officials to approve an emergency coronavirus relief loan to a trucking company on national security grounds despite career officials’ objections, Andrew Feinberg reported for UK’s The Independent.

Photo Insert: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

A report prepared by select committee staff said Trump political appointees “flagrantly disregarded” a Defense Department assessment that a trucking company called Yellow Trucking was not “critical to national security” and therefore ineligible for a loan under a program authorized for such companies under the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Reuters and Washington Post also reported.

Defeated President Donald Trump apparently exerted pressure on his underlings to grant the loan to the losing company.

Despite the objections of career Pentagon officials, the administration authorized a $700m loan — an amount which used up 95 percent of the funds appropriated for the program — and did so under generous terms which violated CARES Act requirements.

“Evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee suggests that these decisions were driven by the White House and President Trump himself,” the report said, the New York Times also reported.

Specifically, the committee found Meadows intervened after multiple communications with lobbyists representing Yellow, along with other White House officials who “regularly communicated” with the company.

The committee also found that then-defense secretary Mark Esper received briefing materials that stressed that Trump had received a call advocating for the loan.

After the Treasury Department approved the loan, Mnuchin “immediately” emailed Meadows the announcement and “highlighted praise for President Trump in news reports” about it, Bloomberg also reported.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic