BREAKING: President Trump signs COVID relief bill

According to sources in the White House, President Donald Trump has signed the COVID-19 relief and the government spending package passed by Congress on Dec. 21. He had previously refused to sign it.

"Good news on Covid Relief Bill," President Trump tweeted Sunday evening. "Information to follow!" Earlier in the day he had tweeted that he had some "good news" pending on the COVID relief bill.

Trump had previously resisted the long-awaited $900 billion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress on Dec. 21, which was accompanied by a $2.3 trillion year end, omnibus spending package. The president had previously called the relief bill a "disgrace" and claimed it had "...almost nothing to do with COVID."

The announcement on Sunday came after Trump spent the weekend pushing lawmakers to increase direct payments for Americans from $600 to $2,000 and to cut the billions of dollars of "pork" and foreign aid in the legislation.

On Sunday, a group of bipartisan lawmakers, calling themselves the "908 Coalition," signed a public letter urging the president to sign the COVID relief package or to veto it immediately.

When the bill was presented to lawmakers, they were only given a few hours to review the nearly 6,000 page legislation before the scheduled vote on the bill. The legislation received overwhelming support from both Republicans and Democrats in both chambers even though it was impossible for them to have read the entire document.

In an impassioned speech to the Senate last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) condemned the legislation, especially the COVID relief stimulus checks, in addition to fellow conservatives who had voted for the bill. "When you vote to pass out free money, you lose your soul and you abandon forever any semblance of moral or fiscal integrity."

Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to President Donald Trump's demands for $2,000 stimulus checks for every American. This was a controversial ask.

Senator Ted Cruz targeted Democrats in a statement posted on Dec. 22, claiming that the legislation "…advances the interests of the radical Left, special interests, and swamp lobbyists, with funding going towards expanding authority for more H-2B visas for foreign workers while a near record number of Americans remain unemployed."

The funding in the bill that was above and beyond COVID relief payments was roundly critiqued on social media following the bill's passage. In addition to the relief payments in the form of direct stimulus checks, unemployment insurance benefits for those without work will be extended.