President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that if Congress wouldnt extend the $600 enhanced unemployment insurance, he would do something himself.

Im taking action to provide an additional or an extra $400 per week in expanded benefits, Trump said Saturday at his golf club in New Jersey.

But $400 is not $600, which is what the benefit was until it expired at the end of July. And it turns out the extra $400 is actually just $300, unless states feel like adding another $100. And the money isnt technically an unemployment benefit, possibly because its legally dubious. And it could take weeks for states to deliver.

The presidents memorandum tells governors they can apply to set up a brand-new lost wages assistance program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program would operate in tandem with state unemployment systems, some of which took weeks and months to deliver federal benefits earlier this year.

If any laid-off workers watching the presidents news conference over the weekend thought they were about to get paid, they might wind up disappointed.

Its setting up workers expectations that theyre going to get a benefit that theres almost no way theyre going to get, said Michele Evermore, an unemployment insurance expert with the National Employment Law Project.

The presidents announcement is partly a negotiating tactic on a broader coronavirus relief deal, as the memorandum says the new wage assistance program shall terminate upon enactment of legislation providing federal unemployment benefits.

A senior White House aide told HuffPost on Monday that there was no movement on a deal right now. But its all hands on deck at Treasury and Labor to get money out to people as soon as they can, the aide said.

In addition to the lost wages program, the president also ordered the Treasury Department to defer payroll tax withholdings, which would give workers more take-home pay but it wouldnt actually waive their tax liability, meaning they would have to pay it back later.

Negotiations on a sweeping deal remain a problem. Democratic leaders say theyve come down $1 trillion from their initial $3.5 trillion request, but Republicans say the reduction is mostly budget gimmickry Democrats just changed the expiration of some programs to temporarily lower the cost.

Republicans and Democrats are still at odds on the unemployment benefits, but theyre also still fighting over money for state and local governments, a liability exemption for companies that reopen, and a write-off for state and local property taxes.

The Democrats demanded a ransom of state and local money and other unnecessary things like SALT, a senior GOP aide told HuffPost on Monday, referring to a Democratic push to reduce a limit on a federal tax deduction for state and local tax payments. Once it became clear they wouldnt get those, they lost interest in bipartisan items like money for testing and schools.