Occam’s Razor says that this sudden call for $2,000 checks is purely Trump trying to screw with Mitch. It’s pure “dominance politics,” putting Yertle on the spot and making him responsible for the failure to pass the bill and thus failure to get those checks out in time to save Loeffler and Purdue’s asses at the polls.

If I thought the man was capable of complicated planning, I’d almost think a bit of sheer brilliance to this one. Embracing the larger checks blows up whatever deal-making Mitch has made with his own caucus to get this bill through, as they’ll demand more for the price of agreeing to those checks, which Pelosi and Schumer will immediately reject absent any further concessions on Mitch’s part. And he can’t even blame the Dems when he rejects those larger checks because Trump’s the guy insisting he’ll blow up the bill without them.

But I don’t think the man’s that clever, so I can only assume that somebody put the idea in his head.