Donald Trump is bereft of rallies, where he got his fix of fawning, cheering admirers. So how would he fill that need? He has begun holding lengthy news conferences like the one he held Wednesday.
Trump called himself a “wartime president” in his fight against the unseen enemy. He started off the press conference by saying:
‘I would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus.’
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, which means he will have the power to direct civilian businesses to meet order productions for the national defense, according to ABC News:
‘We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it. In other words — I think you will know what it is — and it can do a lot of good things if we need it, and we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while, right after I’m finished with this conference. I’ll be signing it.’
The president continued, talking about the two hospital ships:
‘We are sending, upon request, the two hospital ships. They are being prepared right now. They are massive ships. They’re the big white ships with the red cross on the sides. One is called the Mercy and the other is called the Comfort. And they are in tip-top shape.’
After that, he spoke to the press about the self-swab, saying that “is not very nice to do.” The swab runs deep within the nose. POTUS said:
‘Today I can announce further steps expand testing capacity. We are working with several groups to determine if the self-swab, the much easier process than the current process that is not very nice to do. I can tell you, because I did it it. [It] would be administered also by a health official, but it would be a lot easier to do.’
Then, the president urged everyone to “sacrifice together:”
‘Now it’s our time. We must sacrifice together, because we are all in this together, and we will come through together. It’s the invisible enemy. That’s always the toughest enemy. But we are going to defeat the invisible enemy. I think we are going to do it even faster than we thought, and it’ll be a complete victory. It’ll be a total victory.’
ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Cecelia Vega asked about using the term “Chinese Virus” as racist, the commander-in-chief said “it’s not racist at all:”
‘It comes from China, that’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate. China tried to say at one point that — maybe they’ve stopped now, that it was caused by American soldiers. That can’t happen. It’s not going to happen. Not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.’
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned there might be an unemployment rate of up to 20 percent. Trump said:
‘Well, I don’t agree with that. No, I don’t agree. That’s an absolute, total worst-case scenario. No, we don’t look at that at all. We are nowhere near it.’
One reporter asked the president whether China should be “punished.” The president responded:
‘I don’t know if you would say China is to blame. Certainly, we didn’t get an early run on it. It would have been helpful if we knew about it earlier. But it comes from China. It’s not a question.’
Trump clarified:
‘I don’t believe they are inflicting [the virus on us] I think they could have given us a lot earlier notice, absolutely. We would have had a lot of dead people like we haven’t seen before.’
The American people may be getting $1,000 checks, but the president said the amount was “to be determined:”
‘We are looking at different numbers. We are looking at timing that would be different. Splitting the time, splitting the payments. We are looking at a lot of different things. It hasn’t been determined yet but it will surely be determine. Everybody seems to want to go big.’
The president claimed “the best economy we’ve ever had” until this happened. He continued:
‘We had the best economy we’ve ever had, and then one day you have to close it down in order to defeat this enemy. But we are doing it, and we are doing it well. I tell you, the American people have been incredible. For the most part they been really incredible.’
Should Americans trust him to handle this crisis? Trump answered the reporter:
‘Nobody’s ever been swamped like this. Nothing’s been so contagious. The level of contagion has been incredible. When I use the word “calm,’ that doesn’t mean I’m not taking it seriously. We should be calm. We should be extremely calm.’
Trump went on to blame previous administrations:
‘Nothing has been so contagious. The level of contagion has been incredible, actually. Nobody’s seen anything quite like this. We’ve inherited a very obsolete system. This was a system that was out of date, obsolete, it was a system that was never meant to take care of the kind of quantity.’
After that, he referred to the “very complex testing:”
“If you go back to years past, even recently, like the flu — nobody had tests before. They didn’t test the entire nation to see whether or not they had the flu. They got the flu. They got better. Now all now all of a sudden they do this very complex testing.’
Then, the president addressed shutting down the Canadian border:
‘We will be, by mutual consent, temporarily closing our Northern Border with Canada to non-essential traffic. Trade will not be affected. Details to follow!’
Trump’s administration suggested a $1 trillion economic stimulus package. He explained:
‘For the people that are now out of work because of the important and necessary containment policies, for instance the shutting down of hotels, bars and restaurants, money will soon be coming to you. The onslaught of the Chinese Virus is not your fault! Will be stronger than ever!’
Listen to the entire press conference here:
LIVE: Press Briefing with Coronavirus Task Force https://t.co/3WQV4egsWc
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2020
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