‘Almost Giddy’ Trump Officials Ignored Pentagon Concerns on Trucker’s $700 Million COVID Loan

A new report from Democrats alleges that the Trump administration ignored Defense Department objections in rewarding a struggling trucking company a $700 million pandemic relief loan in 2020. “Today’s select subcommittee staff report reveals yet another example of the Trump administration disregarding their obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC) wrote in a statement. The report came out of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and exposes how corporate lobbyists secured trillions of dollars in relief money during the early months of the pandemic in 2020. The trucking company in question—Yellow Corporation—was known to have close ties to the Trump administration and allegedly received biased treatment from Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury secretary, and Mark T. Esper, the former defense secretary. “Almost giddy” Trump officials were happy to help the company despite Defense officials recommending against the loan’s approval, the report says. The loan was given out after Esper certified that the company’s work was essential to national security, something that Defense officials had contested, saying other trucking companies could easily assume the same duties. The report also includes evidence of a Yellow Corporation executive detailing plans to use the relief money on capital investments they had fallen behind on, rather than to offset losses from the pandemic, adding that the company had a “hand in the cookie jar.”