California taxpayers surprised by IRS letters showing oversize Donald Trump signature

When Ripley Howe of Placerville saw he had a letter from the IRS, he said his first instinct was to worry about getting bad news.

Instead, he found a letter stamped with President Donald Trump’s oversize signature describing the economic stimulus payment he’d receive by direct deposit.

“Our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic,” the letter starts off.

The letter is one of millions being sent to Americans to inform them of the direct deposit of federal coronavirus stimulus funds. Ripley said he had heard that people would be getting checks signed by Trump, but that he was surprised to get a letter on White House stationary just to tell him that he was getting money deposited in his bank account.

“This just seems kind of sleazy,” he said.

In the letter, Trump thanks Congress “for working so quickly with my administration to fast-track this $2.2 trillion in much-needed economic relief to the American people,” and concludes that “just as we have before, America will triumph yet again — and rise to new heights of greatness.”

Trump was asked about his signature appearing on the stimulus checks at an April 15 press conference. He said he didn’t know much about his name appearing on the checks, but said it would not delay them being released.

“I don’t imagine it’s a big deal. I’m sure people will be very happy to get a big, fat, beautiful check and my name is on it,” Trump said at the time.

The federal law providing the stimulus funds also required that everyone receiving payment be notified within 15 days of the amount being received and what form the payment would take, according to U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman Patricia McLaughlin.

“As the president said, he wanted to communicate a message to the American people during these challenging times,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

McLaughlin noted that payments are being sent to Americans “in record time,” with the first 89 million payments delivered in less than three weeks.

“In fact, the last time a similar effort was undertaken, in 2008, it took several months to deliver the first 800,000 stimulus checks,” McLaughlin said.

Then President George W Bush in February 2008 signed the economic stimilus bill that provided checks to taxpayers that year. Payments went out that May, according to news stories from the time.

Trump isn’t the first president to put his name on a letter informing Americans that they’re getting money.

In 2001, then-Bush put his name on a letter to Americans informing them about a tax rebate check, according to an archived CNN article.

Michael Wilner contributed to this story.