McConnell will make a stimulus deal to boost Senate Republicans — but not Trump?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has decided he supports a second, likely smaller round of pandemic stimulus checks for the American public. That in itself is not surprising: McConnell is not an ideological purist, and the unprecedented circumstances of this crisis have elicited support for checks from far more fiscally conservative corners.

The more interesting question, then, is: Why now? President Trump wanted the second set of checks — bearing his name — to go out shortly before the election. He appeared to think, in the style of the...