Chart I below shows related events, background, and some pre-2020 government reports on the planning for and possibility of pandemics.
Chart II below tracks the timeline of major statements about COVID-19 (coronavirus) made by President Donald Trump. Some events and the number of US coronavirus cases and deaths each day are included to add context.
| 2005: Nov. 1 | President George W. Bush said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health, “Scientists and doctors cannot tell us where or when the next pandemic will strike or how severe it’ll be, but most agree: At some point, we are likely to face another pandemic… A pandemic is a lot like a forest fire: If caught early it might be extinguished with limited damage; if allowed to smolder undetected it can grow to an inferno that spreads quickly beyond our ability to control it… It is vital that our nation discuss and address the threat of pandemic flu now… [I]f we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.” Source: CNN, “Transcript of Bush Speech on Pandemic Flu Strategy,” cnn.com, Nov. 1, 2005 |
| 2009 | “PREDICT, a project of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) program, was initiated in 2009 to strengthen global capacity for detection and discovery of zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential… Now working with partners in 31 countries, PREDICT is continuing to build platforms for disease surveillance and for identifying and monitoring pathogens that can be shared between animals and people.” Source: US Agency for International Development, “Reducing Pandemic Risk, Promoting Global Health,” usaid.gov (accessed Apr. 14, 2020) |
| 2014: Dec. 2 | President Obama said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health, “There may and likely will come a time in which we have both an airborne disease that is deadly. And in order for us to deal with that effectively, we have to put in place an infrastructure — not just here at home, but globally — that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly… So that if and when a new strain of flu, like the Spanish flu, crops up five years from now or a decade from now, we’ve made the investment and we’re further along to be able to catch it.” Source: The White House, “Remarks by the President on Research for Potential Ebola Vaccines,” obamawhitehouse.archives.gov, Dec. 2, 2014 |
| 2015: Mar. 18 | Referencing the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Bill Gates spoke about the lack of preparedness for the next epidemic, saying, “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war… But we’ve actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We’re not ready for the next epidemic…. The failure to prepare could allow the next epidemic to be dramatically more devastating than Ebola… We need to do simulations, germ games, not war games, so that we see where the holes are… The World Bank estimates that if we have a worldwide flu epidemic, global wealth will go down by over three trillion dollars and we’d have millions and millions of deaths.” Source: Bill Gates, “We’re Not Ready for the Next Epidemic,” gatesnotes.com, Mar. 18, 2015 |
| 2016: July 11 | A memo addressed to then-National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice, written by Christopher Kirchhoff (Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council at the time), stated, “A strong scientific consensus exists that we will see more zoonotic pandemics and infectious disease outbreaks going forward… The very dynamics of globalization and population growth will lead to more pandemics, which must appropriately be considered among the most serious threats to our homeland and to international security.” Source: Christopher Kirchhoff, “Memorandum for Ambassador Susan E. Rice,” int.nyt.com, July 11, 2016 |
| 2017: Jan. 23 | Officials from the outgoing Obama administration met with incoming Trump officials to discuss challenges that would arise in the event of a pandemic. The tabletop exercise simulated a new respiratory influenza outbreak starting in China and arriving in the United States due to international travel. Source: Nahal Toosi, Daniel Lippman, and Dan Diamond, “Before Trump’s Inauguration, a Warning: ‘The Worst Influenza Pandemic since 1918,'” politico.com, Mar. 16, 2020 |
| Feb. 18 | Bill Gates wrote in an Op/Ed, “[E]pidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10-15 years… I view the threat of deadly pandemics right up there with nuclear war and climate change. Innovation, cooperation, and careful planning can dramatically mitigate the risks presented by each of these threats.” Source: Bill Gates, “A New Kind of Terrorism Could Wipe out 30 Million People in Less Than a Year — and We Are Not Prepared,” businessinsider.com, Feb. 18, 2017 |
| 2019: Jan. | The PREDICT program run by USAID was “collapsed into hibernation” in January 2019 and officially “reached the end of its second 5-year funding cycle on Sep. 30, 2019.” USAID enacted a 6-month extension on funding for the program, but partner organizations laid off scientists and analysts when field work stopped in September. Sources: Jan. 30, 2020 letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Angus King, Jr. (I-ME); Emily Baumgaertner and James Rainey, “Trump Administration Ended Pandemic Early-Warning Program to Detect Coronaviruses,” latimes.com, Apr. 2, 2020 |
| June 24 | President Trump signed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2019 (PAHPAIA), which “reauthorizes, revises, and establishes several programs and entities relating to public-health emergency preparedness and response.” Source: US Department of Health & Human Services, "Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act," phe.gov, Sep. 27, 2019 |
| Aug. 13-16 | Crimson Contagion 2019 Functional Exercise with federal, state, local, and tribal governments, hospitals, and private sector found that “The U.S. lacks sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity and/or raw materials for almost all pandemic influenza medical countermeasures, including vaccines and therapeutics, the needles and syringes needed to administer them, and personal protective equipment, including masks, needles, and syringes.” The exercise was based on a hypothetical scenario of a new influenza virus starting in China and spreading around the world. Materials for the event predicted that a pandemic of high severity could result in 110 million illnesses, 7.7 million hospitalizations, and 586,000 deaths in the United States. Source: David E. Sanger, Eric Lipton, Eileen Sullivan, and Michael Crowley, “Before Virus Outbreak, a Cascade of Warnings Went Unheeded,” nytimes.com, Mar. 22, 2020 |
| Sep. 15 | The Council of Economic Advisers wrote in a report titled "Mitigating the Impact of Pandemic Influenza through Vaccine Innovation" that, “in a pandemic year, depending on the transmission efficiency and virulence of the particular pandemic virus, the economic damage would range from $413 billion to $3.79 trillion. Fatalities in the most serious scenario would exceed half a million people in the United States. Millions more would be sick, with between approximately 670,000 to 4.3 million requiring hospitalization.” Source: The Council of Economic Advisors, "Mitigating the Impact of Pandemic Influenza through Vaccine Innovation," whitehouse.gov, Sep. 2019 |
| Oct. 25 | Joe Biden, Vice President in the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter, "We are not prepared for a pandemic. Trump has rolled back progress President Obama and I made to strengthen global health security. We need leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before they reach our shores." Source: Joe Biden, Twitter.com, Oct. 25, 2019 [Note: On Oct. 25, 2019, Joe Biden retweeted an Oct. 24, 2020 Washington Post article, “None of these 195 countries — the U.S. included — is fully prepared for a pandemic, report says," along with his own comment as shown above. Although COVID-19 was about two months away at the time of Biden's quote, we decided to start our coronavirus coverage with his October 25 statement about pandemic preparedness because it was the first relevant pandemic comment that we found by VP Biden or by President Trump.] |
II. President Trump Statements on Coronavirus
| A. Date | B. US Cases / Deaths | C. Event | D. Donald Trump Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 22 | 1 / – | First identified comment on coronavirus by Donald Trump: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” Reporter Q: Do you trust that we’re going to know everything we need to know from China? “I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi.” Source: CNBC, “CNBC Transcript: President Donald Trump Sits Down with CNBC’s Joe Kernen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,” cnbc.com, Jan. 22, 2020 |
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| Jan. 24 | 2 / – | First identified tweet about coronavirus by Donald Trump: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Jan. 24, 2020 |
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| Jan. 27 | 5 / – | Twitter: “We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus. Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch. We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Jan. 27, 2020 |
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| Jan. 29 | 5 / – | President Trump formed a Coronavirus Task Force Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, wrote in a memorandum addressed to President Trump: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” Source: Maggie Haberman, “Trade Adviser Warned White House in January of Risks of a Pandemic,” nytimes.com, Apr. 6, 2020 | Twitter: “Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Jan. 29, 2020 Remarks: “I think our relationship [with China] has never been better. We’re very much involved with them, right now, on the virus that’s going around. We’re working very closely. I spoke to President Xi. We’re working very closely with China.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at a Signing Ceremony for the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement,” whitehouse.gov, Jan. 29, 2020 [Editor’s Note: On Apr. 7, in response to a question about the Jan. 29 and Feb. 23 memos by Navarro, President Trump stated, “I haven’t seen the memo” and said he first read about it on April 5 or 6. We were unable to find an official version of the document aside from images of the memo published by Axios and reported on by the New York Times.] Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 7, 2020,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 7, 2020 |
| Jan. 30 | 5 / – | WHO declared a global public health emergency | Speech in Warren, Michigan: “Now we’re working very strongly with China on the coronavirus — that’s a new thing that a lot of people are talking about. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as some people think it could be. But we’re working very closely with them and with a lot of other people and a lot of other countries. And we think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at a USMCA Celebration with American Workers | Warren, MI,” whitehouse.gov, Jan. 30, 2020 |
| Jan. 31 | 7 / – | Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, declared that the coronavirus presented a Public Health Emergency in the United States | Proclamation of travel ban on China effective Feb. 2: “The entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the People’s Republic of China, excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States is hereby suspended.” Source: Donald Trump, “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus,” whitehouse.gov, Jan. 31, 2020 |
| Feb. 1 | 8 / – | ||
| Feb. 2 | 9 / – | Interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News: Reporter Q: Movie theaters are closed. Hospitals are being built. I think we’re now up to our eighth case in the United States. Um, how concerned are you? “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. We have a tremendous relationship with China, which is a very positive thing. Getting along with China, getting along with Russia getting along with these countries.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago – Part 1 – February 2, 2020,” factba.se, Feb. 2, 2020 |
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| Feb. 4 | 11 / – | State of the Union Address: “Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases. We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in State of the Union Address,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 4, 2020 |
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| Feb. 6 | 11 / – | First coronavirus death in the US | |
| Feb. 7 | 11 / – | US sent 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to China | Press gathering: Reporter Q: Are you concerned that China is covering up the full extent of coronavirus? “No. China is working very hard. Late last night, I had a very good talk with President Xi, and we talked about —mostly about the coronavirus. They’re working really hard, and I think they are doing a very professional job. They’re in touch with World — the World — World Organization. CDC also. We’re working together. But World Health is working with them. CDC is working with them. I had a great conversation last night with President Xi. It’s a tough situation. I think they’re doing a very good job.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 7, 2020 Twitter: “Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but… ….he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Feb. 7, 2020 |
| Feb. 10 | 11 / – | Speech at White House Business Session with the nation’s governors: “Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump at the White House Business Session with Our Nation’s Governors,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 10, 2020 Interview on Fox Business: Trish Regan: “President Xi, I know you spoke to him recently about coronavirus… What’s your sense of their transparency right now, whether they’re being more accommodating in terms of telling us what’s going on and how it affects our economy?” President Trump: “Well, I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control. I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that’s a beautiful date to look forward to. But China I can tell you is working very hard. We’re working with them. You know, we just sent some of our best people over there, World Health Organization and a lot of them are composed of our people. They’re fantastic. And they’re now in China, and we’re helping them out. We’re in very good shape. We have 11 cases and most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they’ll all be better.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Trish Regan of Fox Business Interviews Donald Trump in Manchester, NH – February 10, 2020,” factba.se, Feb. 10, 2020 |
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| Feb. 13 | 13 / – | Radio interview: “[W]e’re working on it very closely. I spoke to President Xi two days ago. They’re working on it very professionally. It’s a problem, we think and we hope, based on all signs that the problem goes away in April because — which is not too far down the road, because heat kills this virus… We’re sending a lot of people and CDC has been great but it is — it’s a problem in China. Has not been spreading very much. In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it’s actually less.” Geraldo Rivera: “Did the Chinese tell the truth about this?” President Trump: “Well, you never know. I think they want to put the best face on it. So you know, I mean, if somebody — if you were running it, you’d probably — you wouldn’t want to run out to the world and go crazy and start saying whatever it is because you don’t want to create a panic. But, no, I think they’ve handled it professionally and I think they’re extremely capable.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Geraldo Rivera Interviews Donald Trump on Geraldo in Cleveland – February 13, 2020,” factba.se, Feb. 13, 2020 |
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| Feb. 18 | – / – | Remarks before departing on Air Force One: Reporter Q: Some people don’t seem to trust the data coming out of China. Are you worried about that? “Look, I know this: President Xi loves the people of China, he loves his country, and he’s doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump Before Air Force One Departure | Joint Base Andrews, MD,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 18, 2020 |
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| Feb. 23 | 15 / – | Second memo from President Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro: “There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls” Source: Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev, “Navarro Memos Warning of Mass Coronavirus Death Circulated in January,” axios.com, Apr. 7, 2020 | [Editor’s Note: On Apr. 7, in response to a question about the Jan. 29 and Feb. 23 memos by Navarro, President Trump stated, “I haven’t seen the memo” and said he first read about it on April 5 or 6. As of Apr. 8, 2020, we were unable to find an official version of the document aside from images of the memo published by Axios and reported on by the New York Times.] Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 7, 2020,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 7, 2020 |
| Feb. 24 | 15 / – | Twitter: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Feb. 24, 2020 |
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| Feb. 25 | 15 / – | Twitter: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world… So far, by the way, we have not had one death. Let’s keep it that way!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Feb. 25, 2020 |
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| Feb. 26 | 15 / – | Mike Pence appointed head of White House Coronavirus Task Force | Press conference: Asked about previously proposed budget cuts to CDC, NIH, and WHO: “Some of the people we cut, they haven’t been used for many, many years. And if — if we have a need, we can get them very quickly.” On whether Americans can make summer travel plans: “[W]hen you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” On the nature of coronavirus: “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner… This is a flu. This is like a flu.” On whether there is enough testing: “[W]e’re testing everybody that we need to test. And we’re finding very little problem.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Conference” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 27, 2020 |
| Feb. 27 | 16 / – | Meeting with African American Leaders: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with African American Leaders,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 28, 2020 |
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| Feb. 28 | 16 / – | Rally in South Carolina: “The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right?… They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation and this is their new hoax.” Source: Lauren Egan, “Trump Calls Coronavirus Democrats’ ‘New Hoax,'” thehill.com, Feb. 28, 2020 |
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| Feb. 29 | 24 / 1 | First confirmed coronavirus death in US (originally reported) | Remarks before departing on Air Force One: “[O]ur relationship with China is very good. Maybe it’s closer because of what’s happened here, because it was — you know, in a certain way, this can bring the world closer, if you want to know. It can really do that.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Conference,” whitehouse.gov, Feb. 29, 2020 |
| March 1 | 30 / 1 | ||
| March 2 | 53 / 6 | Meeting with pharmaceutical companies: “[W]e’re working very hard to expedite the longer process of developing a vaccine.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Meeting with Pharmaceutical Companies,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 2, 2020 Rally in North Carolina: “We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great [pharmaceutical] companies and they’re going to have vaccines. I think relatively soon and they’re going to have something that makes you better and that’s going to actually take place, we think, even sooner.” Source: Factbase, “Speech: Donald Trump Holds a Political Rally in Charlotte, North Carolina – March 2, 2020,” factba.se, Mar. 2, 2020 |
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| March 3 | 78 / 9 | Briefing at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center: “We made an early decision based on a little bit of luck, I suspect, but that was the original decision on China itself. And China, in all fairness to them, they never blamed us. It was, you know, a tough decision for them, but they fully understood. They were very reasonable about it. But that was a hard decision to make. But I guess we would have had a lot more people with difficulty if we didn’t make that decision very early on.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable Briefing on Coronavirus | Bethesda, MD,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 3, 2020 |
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| March 4 | 98 / 11 | Interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News: “I think the 3.4 percent [global death rate] is really a false number… So, if we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better…But again, they don’t know about the easy cases, because the easy cases don’t go to the hospital… It’s not that severe.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump Via Telephone – March 4, 2020,” factba.se, Mar. 4, 2020 |
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| March 5 | 164 / 12 | Twitter: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats, in particular MSDNC. Comcast covers the CoronaVirus situation horribly, only looking to do harm to the incredible & successful effort being made!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 5, 2020 |
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| March 6 | 164 / 15 | Bill signing: “What a problem. Came out of nowhere, but we’re taking care of it… And in terms of deaths, I don’t know what the count is today. Is it 11? Eleven people? And in terms of cases, it’s very, very few. When you look at other countries, it’s a very tiny fraction because we’ve been very strong at the borders.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at Signing of the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020,” whitehouse.com, Mar. 6, 2020 Comments after a tour of CDC facilities: “They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test… I like the numbers [of reported US coronavirus cases] being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship [the Grand Princess cruise ship docked in San Francisco with 21 confirmed coronavirus cases on board at the time].” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump after Tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Atlanta, GA,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 7, 2020 |
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| March 9 | 647 / 26 | Twitter: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 9, 2020 |
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| March 10 | 937 / 30 | Meeting with Republican senators: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away… The consumer has never been in a better position than they are right now.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump after Meeting with Republican Senators,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 10, 2020 |
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| March 11 | 1,215 / 38 | WHO declares outbreak is a pandemic | National address: “My fellow Americans: Tonight, I want to speak with you about our nation’s unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world. Today, the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic… To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days… These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom… Additionally, last week, I signed into law an $8.3 billion funding bill to help CDC and other government agencies fight the virus and support vaccines, treatments, and distribution of medical supplies.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Address to the Nation,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 11, 2020 |
| March 12 | 1,629 / 41 | ||
| March 13 | 1,896 / 48 | Declaration of National Emergency: “NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America… do hereby find and proclaim that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States constitutes a national emergency, beginning March 1, 2020.” Source: Donald Trump, “Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 13, 2020 [Editor’s Note: While President Trump issued the declaration of National Emergency on Mar. 13, he noted that it applied retroactively 12 days to Mar. 1.] Press Conference: “Q: Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was, in fact, ‘a failing.’ Do you take responsibility for that? THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, no, I don’t take responsibility at all, because we were given a — a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn’t meant for this kind of an event with the kind of numbers that we’re talking about. And what we’ve done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of the people behind me. And we’re now in very, very strong shape.” Reporter Q: Are you happy from the Chinese response? What correctly really told you — what really happened those days? “[A]s far as President Xi — likewise, he’s a friend of mine. I believe that we are dealing in good faith. And we just worked to, as you know, and as I just said — we just worked an incredible [trade] deal.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 13, 2020 |
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| March 15 | 3,487 / 73 | Press conference: “This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over. I think, very important, the young people and people of good health, and groups of people, just are not strongly affected.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 15, 2020 |
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| March 16 | 4,226 / 95 | Press conference: “[W]e’re announcing new guidelines for every American to follow over the next 15 days as we combat the virus… [M]y administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible. Avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people. Avoid discretionary travel. And avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 16, 2020 Twitter: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 16, 2020 |
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| March 17 | 7,038 / 121 | Press conference: “Our guidance yesterday urges Americans to take action for 15 days to help stem the outbreak… We’ll see what happens after that… our country can be rolling again pretty quickly… I’ve always known this is a — this is a real — this is a pandemic. I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 17, 2020 |
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| March 18 | 10,442 / 171 | US-Canada border closed to non-essential travel | Twitter: “I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 18, 2020 Press conference: “We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it.” Reporter Q: Do you consider America to be on a wartime footing, in terms of fighting this virus? “I do. I view it as a, in a sense, a wartime president. I mean, that’s what we’re fighting.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 18, 2020 |
| March 19 | 15,219 / 239 | Press conference: “I don’t view it as an act of God; I would view it as is something that just surprised the whole world. And if people would have known about it… It could have been stopped right where it came from — China… So we slashed red tape to develop vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done — long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this. Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 19, 2020 |
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| March 20 | 18,747 / 309 | White House announcement of measures including Tax Day moved to July 15, closing of US-Mexico border to non-essential travel, and waiving interest on student loans | |
| March 21 | 24,583 / 374 | Press conference: “Last night, I [approved] a major disaster declaration for the State of New York. I worked very closely with Governor Cuomo. And is the first time in our nation’s history that a President has used the Stafford Act to declare a major disaster in response to a public health crisis… The Department of Education will not enforce standardized testing — which is another big deal — requirements for students in elementary through high school for the current school year.” Reporter Q: Since this story keeps popping up, when did you first learn that this was going to be a problem? “[W]hen I learned, I started doing the closings… I wish they could have told us earlier about what was going on inside. We didn’t know about it until it started coming out publicly… China has worked very hard. China has lost thousands and thousands of people… No, they weren’t transparent. They were transparent at that time, but when we saw what happened, they could have been transparent much earlier than they were.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 21, 2020 |
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| March 22 | 33,404 / 509 | Press conference: “I’m of the opinion we have to do great during this 14 days, during the 15-day period. We’ll know at the end of 14 days, pretty much. We’re going to have a pretty good idea how we’re doing. I think you have to shut it down and you have to see. But, you know, there’ll be a point at which we say, ‘We’re back in business. Let’s go.'” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 22, 2020 Twitter: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 22, 2020 [The above is written in capital letters to preserve the formatting from the tweet as posted by President Trump.] |
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| March 23 | 44,183 / 689 | Twitter: “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus…. ….is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 23, 2020 |
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| March 24 | 54,453 / 957 | Virtual town hall with Coronavirus Task Force on Fox News: “[W]e lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off, I mean every year… We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn’t call up the automobile companies, say, ‘Stop making cars. We don’t want any cars anymore.” We have to get back to work… I would love to have it [the country] open by Easter. I will tell you that right now. I would love to have that. It’s such an important day for other reasons, but I’ll make it an important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and they’re just raring to go by Easter… But our country has to get back to work, otherwise it’s going to be very hard to start it up again.” Source: Rev, “Donald Trump Coronavirus Town Hall Transcript March 24: Trump Wants to Restart the Economy by Easter,” rev.com, Mar. 24, 2020 |
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| March 25 | 68,440 / 1,260 | Press Conference: “I have now approved major disaster declarations for New York, California, Washington, Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. That has great significance, as you know, and legal significance… We’re testing more than anybody right now. There’s nobody even close. And our tests are the best tests. They’re the most accurate tests… We have some big problems, but it’s confined to certain areas, high-density areas. So why would we test the entire nation — 350 [million] people? With that being said, I’m going to say it again: We tested far more than anybody else.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 25, 2020 |
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| March 26 | 85,356 / 1,614 | Interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News: “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be. I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you’re going to major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators.” Source: Fox News, “EXCLUSIVE: Trump Goes One-on-One with Hannity to Discuss Coronavirus Response,” youtube.com, Mar. 26, 2020 Press conference: “[W]e inherited a broken situation, but I don’t totally blame the people that were before me and this administration. Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened. But the Production Act — Defense Production Act — is a wonderful thing, but I just haven’t had to use it. They know it’s activated. They know I can use it. Maybe that frightens them a little bit. You know, it’s got tremendous power. But I haven’t had to.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.com, Mar. 26, 2020 |
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| March 27 | 103,321 / 2,110 | US surpassed 100,000 coronavirus cases | Statement regarding the Defense Production Act: “Today, I signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators.” Source: President Trump, “Statement from the President Regarding the Defense Production Act,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 27, 2020 Press conference: “Q: What more, specifically, do you want the governor of Washington and the governor of Michigan to be doing? THE PRESIDENT: All I want them to do — very simple — I want them to be appreciative. I don’t want them to say things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job. And I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about Mike Pence, the task force; I’m talking about FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers… You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call. He’s [Vice President Mike Pence] a different type of person. He’ll call quietly anyway.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 28, 2020 Remarks while signing the CARES Act: “Last night, I spoke to President Xi. We talked about the experience that they had in China and all of the things that have taken place. And we learned a lot. They’ve had a very tough experience, and they’re doing well and he’s doing well. President Xi is doing very well. But we learned a lot and we have great communication together. We’re going to be sent great data from China.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump at Signing of H.R.748, The CARES Act” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 27, 2020 |
| March 28 | 122,653 / 2,754 | Twitter: “I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing ‘hot spots’, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.” “On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the [Governors] of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the…. ….Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Mar. 28, 2020 |
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| March 29 | 140,904 / 3,251 | Press conference: On equipment for hospitals: “As you know, every level of government — state, local, and federal — is working nonstop to obtain more personal protective equipment for frontline workers… Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 [masks used in normal conditions] to 300,000 [masks needed during the pandemic]?… I don’t think it’s hoarding; I think it’s maybe worse than hoarding. But check it out.” On a potential timeline: “The peak, the highest point of death rates — remember this — is likely to hit in two weeks. Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all…Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30th to slow the spread… We can expect that, by June 1st, we will be well on our way to recovery. We think, by June 1st, a lot of great things will be happening.” On estimated deaths from coronavirus: “[A ]lot of people have been asking, ‘Well, what would have happened if we did nothing? Did nothing — we just rode it out.’… Think of the number: 2.2 — potentially 2.2 million people [dying of coronavirus] if we did nothing. If we didn’t do the distancing, if we didn’t do all of the things that we’re doing… And so, if we can hold that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000 [deaths] — that’s a horrible number — maybe even less, but to 100,000; so we have between 100- and 200,000 — we all, together, have done a very good job.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 30, 2020 |
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| March 30 | 163,539 / 4,066 | Call with state governors: Montana Governor Steve Bullock: “Literally we are one day away, if we don’t get test kits from the CDC, that we wouldn’t be able to do testing in Montana.” President Trump: “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests and we’re coming out with another one tomorrow where it’s almost instantaneous testing. But I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.” Source: Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, and Mike Baker, “Trump Suggests Lack of Testing Is No Longer a Problem. Governors Disagree.,” nytimes.com, Mar. 30, 2020 Press Conference: “Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days… People should be staying at home… [T]he economy is number two on my list. First, I want to save a lot of lives. We’re going to get the economy back. I think the economy is going to come back very fast.” On testing: “Q: Mr. President, you said several times that the United States has ramped up testing, but the United States is still not testing per capita as many people as other countries like South Korea… THE PRESIDENT: Look — look — per capita. We have areas of country that’s very tight. I know South Korea better than anybody. It’s a — very tight. Do you know how many people are in Seoul? Do you know how big the city of Seoul is?… Thirty-eight million people all tightly wound together. We have vast farmlands. We have vast areas where they don’t have much of a problem. In some cases, they have no problem whatsoever. We have done more tests… I didn’t talk about per capita.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in a Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Mar. 30, 2020 |
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| March 31 | 186,101 / 5,151 | Press Conference: “We’re at war with a deadly virus… this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks… The question is what would have happened if we did nothing? Because there was a group that said let’s just ride it out… 2.2 million people would’ve died if we did nothing. We just carried on our life. Now I don’t think that would’ve been possible because you would have had people dying all over the place. This would not have been a normal life. How many people have even seen anybody die? You would have seen people dying on airplanes. You would’ve been seeing people dying in hotel lobbies. You would have seen death all over… I think the one thing nobody really knew about this virus was how contagious it was. It’s so incredibly contagious. And nobody knew that.” On whether impeachment process was a distraction: “Q: [Mitch McConnell] said that impeachment diverted the attention of the government… Did it divert your attention or your team’s attention or the Vice President’s attention? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t like to think I did. I think I handled it very well, but I guess it probably did. I mean, I got impeached. I think, you know, I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it, right? So, but think of it: It was a hoax. It was a total hoax.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 1, 2020 |
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| April 1 | 213,144 / 6,394 | Press Conference: On China: “Q: [D]id China underreport both the number of cases and the death toll from the coronavirus?… THE PRESIDENT: We really don’t know. I mean, yeah — look, how do we know whether if they underreported or reported however they report? But we had a great call the other night. We’re working together on a lot of different things, including trade.” On comparing coronavirus to the flu: “Q: [Yesterday] you said, ‘This is no flu…’ over the past month, you’ve compared it to the flu sometimes, saying, ‘Treat it like the flu…’ So what changed your thinking on that or your language on that? THE PRESIDENT: I think the severity. I think also in looking at the way the contagion — it is so contagious. Nobody has ever seen anything like this, where large groups of people, all of a sudden, just by being in the presence of somebody, have it. The flu has never been like that.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 1, 2020 |
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| April 2 | 239,279 / 7,576 | More than 1,000,000 global coronavirus cases recorded | Press conference: “I want to remind small-business owners across America that the Paycheck Protection Program is launching tomorrow. Nearly $350 billion in loans will be available to small businesses, including sole proprietors… By the way, the states should have been building their stockpile. We have almost 10,000 in our stockpile. And we’ve been building it, and we’ve been supplying it. But the states should be building. We’re a backup. We’re not an ordering clerk.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 3, 2020 |
| April 3 | 277,205 / 8,839 | CDC issued recommendation to wear cloth face coverings in public | Press conference: On masks: “The CDC is recommending that Americans wear a basic cloth or a fabric mask that can be either purchased online or simply made at home… [I]t’s going to be, really, a voluntary thing. You can do it. You don’t have to do it. I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that’s okay…” On uninsured Americans: “We’re also taking action to ensure the cost of no barrier to any American seeking testing or treatment of the coronavirus… Today I can so proudly announce that hospitals and healthcare providers treating uninsured coronavirus patients will be reimbursed by the federal government using funds from the economic relief package Congress passed last month.” On the issue of vote-by-mail in the Nov. election: “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting. I think people should vote with ID — voter ID. I think voter ID is very important. And the reason they don’t want voter ID is because they intend to cheat… No, it shouldn’t be mailed in. You should vote at the booth.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 3, 2020 |
| April 4 | 304,826 / 10,384 | Press conference: “[M]itigation does work. But again, we’re not going to destroy our country. We have to get back. Because, you know, at a certain point, you’ll lose more people this way — through all of the problems caused — than you will with what we’re doing right now… But I’ve said it from the beginning: The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself… So at a certain point, some hard decisions are going to have to be made.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 5, 2020 |
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| April 5 | 330,891 / 11,793 | Press conference: “I really believe that the American people are doing a better job than anybody would have thought even possible, and that’s one of the reasons we can even be talking about the kind of number [of deaths from coronavirus] that we hopefully will be talking about, which is at the minimum level instead of the maximum or beyond… I see light at the end of the tunnel. I think indications are some of the numbers coming out today.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 6, 2020 |
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| April 6 | 374,329 / 13,298 | US surpassed 10,000 coronavirus deaths | Twitter: “LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 6, 2020 Press Conference: On his phone call with Joe Biden: “I also spoke, just a few minutes ago, with former Vice President Biden, who called. And we had a really wonderful, warm conversation. It was a very nice conversation… And he gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that. And we just had a very friendly conversation. It lasted probably 15 minutes, and it was really good… I appreciate his calling.” On the letter written by Navy Captain Brett Crozier about a coronavirus outbreak on his ship, the U.S.S. Teddy Roosevelt: “Look, the letters shouldn’t have been sent, and certainly they shouldn’t have been leaked. This is a military operation… It’s a mistake that shouldn’t have been made, because it’s unfair to the families of the people on the ship because they get nervous. And it shows weakness.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 7, 2020 |
| April 7 | 395,011 / 15,526 | Twitter: “The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 7, 2020 |
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| April 8 | 427,460 / 17,691 | Press Conference: “[I]t would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country — or certainly most of our country. And I think we’re going to do that soon. If you look at what’s happening, I would say we’re ahead of schedule. Now, you hate to say it too loudly because, all of the sudden, things don’t happen. But I think we will be sooner rather than later… Q: So you wouldn’t do that until the health experts tell you it’s safe to do it? THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I would — I rely very heavily on them. Yeah.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 8, 2020 |
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| April 9 | 459,165 / 19,802 | Press Conference: “Through the FDA’s Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program, 19 therapies and treatments are now being tested and 26 more are in the active planning for clinical trial… I’m reporting today that we passed 2 million tests completed in the United States, first time — most anywhere in the country. It’s a milestone for our country… To provide further economic relief, the Federal Reserve announced this morning that it’ll provide up to $2.3 trillion in support to businesses, states, and local governments… Previously, we waived student loan payments for six months. So, student loan payments have been waived for six months, and we’ll discuss it after that.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 9, 2020 |
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| April 10 | 492,416 / 22,038 | Press Conference: “Hard to believe that if you had 60,000 [coronavirus deaths] — you could never be happy, but that’s a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking. So they said between 100- and 220,000 lives on the minimum side, and then up to 2.2 million lives if we didn’t do anything. But it showed a just tremendous resolve by the people of this country.” Reporter Q: [S]tarting to open up the economy again on May 1st, doesn’t that lead to more deaths? “Staying at home leads to death also. And it’s very traumatic for this country. But staying at home — if you look at numbers — that leads to a different kind of death, perhaps, but it leads to death also. So it’s a very big decision. As I say, it’s the biggest decision I’ll ever make.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 10, 2020 Twitter: “The Invisible Enemy will soon be in full retreat!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 10, 2020 |
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| April 11 | 525,704 / 24,062 | US surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases and 20,000 coronavirus deaths | Interview with Judge Jeanine on Fox News: “I think the stimulus coupled with this pent-up demand and everybody wanting to get out and go back to work, I think we’re going to have just a tremendous surge. I think it’s going to be like a rocket ship.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Jeanine Pirro with Donald Trump on Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox – April 11, 2020,” factba.se, Apr. 11, 2020 |
| April 12 | 554,849 / 25,789 | Easter Sunday | Twitter: “For the first time in history there is a fully signed Presidential Disaster Declaration for all 50 States. We are winning, and will win, the war on the Invisible Enemy!” “Governors, get your states testing programs & apparatus perfected. Be ready, big things are happening. No excuses! The Federal Government is there to help. We are testing more than any country in the World. Also, gear up with Face Masks!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 12, 2020 |
| April 13 | 579,005 / 27,515 | Press conference: Reporter Q: There’s a debate over what authority you have to order the country reopened. What authority do you have? “[W]hen somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be… The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I’ll use that power, we’ll see… But I have the absolute right to do if I want to. I may not want to.” Reporter Q: What is the status of the funding for the World Health Organization? “We’re going to be talking about that very soon. I’m getting a full report. I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. I’m not happy with the World Trade Organization either. We’ve been ripped off by everybody.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 14, 2020 Twitter: “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect…. ….It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 13, 2020 |
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| April 14 | 605,390 / 30,081 | Press conference: On cutting funding for the World Health Organization: “Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus… The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable and there was no need for travel bans… The WHO’s reliance on China’s disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that.” On ending stay-at-home measures: “The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized, and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody… And I will then be authorizing each individual governor, of each individual state, to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate… [T]here are numerous states that are in great shape right now. They’re viewing the rest of the country like we don’t even believe this is happening… We’re going to let them open sooner than the date… But it’s going to be very, very soon — sooner than the end of the month.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 14, 2020 |
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| April 15 | 632,548 / 32,712 | More than 2,000,000 global coronavirus cases recorded | Press conference: “The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases… You already know we’ll be opening up states — some states much sooner than others. And we think some of the states can actually open up before the deadline of May 1st.” Reporter Q: Why do we have 20 percent of the world’s deaths from the coronavirus when we’re only 4 percent of the world’s population? “Well, you don’t know what you have. Do you think you’re getting honest numbers from some of these countries? Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China — and that they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths — does anybody really believe that? Here’s the story: We report everything. We’re reporting the cases, and our reporting is good. We’re reporting every death. In fact, I see, this morning, where New York added 3,000 deaths because they died. And they’re now saying — rather than, ‘It was a heart attack’ — they’re saying, ‘It was a heart attack caused by this.’ So they’re adding.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 15, 2020 |
| April 16 | 661,712 / 34,905 | The White House released a document titled “Guidelines for Opening Up America Again,” offering proposed steps for state and local officials to follow “a three-phased approach based on the advice of public health experts.” | Press conference: “A prolonged lockdown combined with a forced economic depression would inflict an immense and wide-ranging toll on public health. This includes a sharp rise in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide, heart disease, and many other dimensions of physical and mental wellbeing… Therefore, my administration is issuing new federal guidelines that will allow governors to take a phased and deliberate approach to reopening their individual states… I think 29 states are in that ballgame, not open — not for opening, but I think they’ll be able to open relatively soon.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 16, 2020 |
| April 17 | 690,714 / 37,448 | Press conference: "We’ve got to open up our country. We’re going to open it up in quadrants. We’re going to open it up in states. Some of the states should get together and they should work on their own borders and everything, because you don’t want to have people pouring through the border of a state that isn’t infected and you have people coming perhaps outside… I think the schools are going to be open soon.” Reporter Q: The investigation into whether the virus escaped from this lab in Wuhan, how active is that? “Well, we’re looking at that… It seems to make sense. They talk about a certain kind of bat, but that bat wasn’t in that area… That bat wasn’t sold at that wet zone… That bat is 40 miles away. So a lot of strange things are happening, but there is a lot of investigation going on and we’re going to find out. All I can say is, wherever it came from — it came from China — in whatever form, 184 countries now are suffering because of it. And it’s too bad, isn’t it? And it could have been solved very easily.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 17, 2020 Twitter: “Cuomo ridiculously wanted ’40 thousand Ventilators’. We gave him a small fraction of that number, and it was plenty. State should have had them in stockpile!” “China has just announced a doubling in the number of their deaths from the Invisible Enemy. It is far higher than that and far higher than the U.S., not even close!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 17, 2020 |
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| April 18 | 720,630 / 39,331 | Press conference: “While we mourn the tragic loss of life — and you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it — the United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany… [W]hen the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one [in coronavirus deaths] — but we’re not number one; China is number one, just so you understand. China is number one by a lot. It’s not even close. They’re way ahead of us in terms of death. It’s not even close. You know it. I know it. And they know it. But you don’t want to report it. Why? You’ll have to explain that. Someday I’ll explain it.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 18, 2020 |
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| April 19 | 746,625 / 40,901 | Press conference: “We also are going to be using, and we’re preparing to use, the Defense Production Act to increase swab production in one U.S. facility by over 20 million additional swabs per month. We’ve had a little difficulty with one, so we’re going to call in — as we have in the past, as you know — we’re calling in the Defense Production Act, and we’ll be getting the swabs, very easily… You must remember that the governors wanted to have total control over the opening of their states, but now they want to have us, the federal government, do the testing. And again, testing is local. You can’t have it both ways.” On the estimated total US death count: “[I]t looks like we’ll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of. So this isn’t a case where people would say, ‘Oh, we would have had that number. It’s similar to a flu.’ It’s not the same thing as the flu at all.” Reporter Q: If there were groups of people planning to protest tomorrow against the government shutdown, what would be your advice? “I don’t have any advice. People feel that way. You’re allowed to protest… Some governors have gone too far. Some of the things that happened are maybe not so appropriate. And I think, in the end, it’s not going to matter because we’re starting to open up our states… As far as protesters — you know, I see protesters for all sorts of things. And I’m with everybody. I’m with everybody.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 20, 2020 Twitter: “Just like I was right on Ventilators (our Country is now the ‘King of Ventilators’, other countries are calling asking for help-we will!), I am right on testing. Governors must be able to step up and get the job done. We will be with you ALL THE WAY!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 19, 2020 |
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| April 20 | 776,093 / 42,853 | Press conference: “This pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of keeping vital supply chains at home. We cannot outsource our independence. We cannot be reliant on foreign nations. I’ve been saying this for a long time. If we’ve learned one thing it’s: Let’s do it here, let’s build it here, let’s make it here. We’ve got the greatest country in the world. We’ve got to start bringing our supply chains back.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 20, 2020 Twitter: “States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing – But we will work with the Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of thousands of complex Ventilators!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 20, 2020 |
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| April 21 | 802,583 / 45,536 | Press conference: “We’re opening up America again. Twenty states representing 40 percent of the U.S. population have announced that they are making plans and preparations to safely restart their economies in the very near future… My administration has worked aggressively with Congress to negotiate this critical 482-billion-dollar funding package. We reached a deal that includes $382 billion in crucial small-business support to keep workers on the payroll; $75 billion to aid hospitals, which really need the aid, and very badly — I’m very proud of that; and $25 billion to support coronavirus testing efforts.” On his decision to halt immigration into the United States: “We have a solemn duty to ensure these unemployed Americans regain their jobs and their livelihoods. Therefore, in order to protect American workers, I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States… It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker — take care of the American worker. This pause will be in effect for 60 days… This order will only apply to individuals seeking a permanent residency. In other words, those receiving green cards — a big factor — it will not apply to those entering on a temporary basis.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 21, 2020 |
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| April 22 | 828,441 / 47,894 | President Trump signed an Executive Order suspending immigration into the US, with some exceptions, for the next 60 days | Press conference: On reports that the Director of the CDC said that a second wave of the coronavirus could be worse: “He was misquoted. Totally misquoted. He said they [coronavirus and the flu] could come together… And his whole purpose in making the statement was to get a flu shot, so that next fall we don’t have such a big season of flu — and we possibly won’t. [W]e may have a big flu season. But that’s different. Flu is very different from corona… And, Doctor, wouldn’t you say there’s a good chance that COVID will not come back? And if it does come back, it’s in a very small, confined area that we put out… It may not come back at all… And if it comes back, though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was. It will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain… But, in my opinion, from everything I’ve seen, it can never be like anything that we’ve witnessed right now.” Reporter Q: Is the food supply secure? “Yeah, totally secure. It’s in great shape.” On the Georgia governor’s Executive Order allowing businesses such as gyms and salons to reopen starting Apr. 24: “I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of Georgia… But, at the same time, he must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he’s doing.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 22, 2020 |
| April 23 | 865,585 / 50,234 | Press conference: President Trump: “So I asked Bill [Bryan, acting undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate] a question… So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.” Acting Under Secretary Bryan: “We’ll get to the right folks who could.” President Trump: “Right. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.” […] Reporter: “But I — just, can I ask about — the President mentioned the idea of cleaners, like bleach and isopropyl alcohol you mentioned. There’s no scenario that that could be injected into a person, is there?” […] President Trump: “It wouldn’t be through injection. We’re talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work. But it certainly has a big effect if it’s on a stationary object.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 23, 2020 |
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| April 24 | 895,766 / 52,191 | US surpassed 50,000 deaths | Bill signing: On remarks made in the press conference on Apr. 23: NPR reporter Ayesha Rascoe: “Mr. President, can you clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant? They were quite provocative.” President Trump: “No, I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen. Now, disinfectant for doing this maybe on the hands would work. And I was asking the question of the gentleman who was there yesterday, Bill, because when they say that something will last three, or four hours, or six hours, but if the sun is out or if they use disinfectant, it goes away in less than a minute. Did you hear about this yesterday? But I was asking a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters. Okay?” Rascoe: “But you were asking your medical experts to look into it.” President Trump: “No, no, no.” Rascoe: “Were you being sarcastic with them?” President Trump: “To look into whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands, but whether or not sun can help us because he came in yesterday and he said they’ve done a big study. This is a study. This isn’t where he hasn’t done it. This is where they’ve come in with a final report that sun has a massive impact negatively on this virus. In other words, it does not live well with humidity and it doesn’t live well with sun, sunlight, heat. It doesn’t live well with heat, and sun, and disinfectant. And that’s what I brought out, and I thought it was clear.” Reporter Q: What price China should pay for spreading this virus and covering it up and lying about it? “Well, we’re looking into it. We’re studying it. We’re investigating and we’ll see what happens. But it is something that should have been stopped early on. It could have been stopped easily in China and we don’t understand why they didn’t do it. So we’re looking into it. We’re not happy about it.” Source: Rev, “Transcript: Donald Trump Signs Relief Bill, Says Comments on Injecting Disinfectant Were ‘Sarcastic,'” rev.com, Apr. 24, 2020 |
| April 25 | 928,619 / 54,256 | Twitter: “Ventilators, many brand new and high quality just off of our production lines, and that we are now in a position to help other countries that so desperately need them. Every person needing a Ventilator got one!” “The Do Nothing Democrats are spending much of their money on Fake Ads. I never said that the CoronaVirus is a ‘Hoax’, I said that the Democrats, and the way they lied about it, are a Hoax. Also, it did start with ‘one person from China’, and then grew, & will be a ‘Miracle’ end!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 25, 2020 |
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| April 26 | 957,875 / 55,412 | Twitter: “Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be ‘fired’ by me are Fake News. The Lamestream Media knows this, but they are desperate to create the perception of chaos & havoc in the minds of the public. They never even called to ask. Alex is doing an excellent job!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 26, 2020 |
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| April 27 | 981,246 / 56,795 | More than 3 million global cases recorded | Press conference: “[W]e continue to mourn with thousands of families across the country whose loved ones have been stolen from us by the invisible enemy. We grieve by their side as one family — this great American family… We also stand in solidarity with the thousands of Americans who are ill and waging a brave fight against the virus. We’re doing everything in our power to heal the sick and to gradually re-open our nation, and to safely get our people back to work. They want to get back to work, and they want to get back to work soon. There’s a hunger for getting our country back, and it’s happening, and it’s happening faster than people would think.” On US testing capacity: “On Saturday alone, more than 200,000 test results were reported, which is a gigantic number — bigger than any country anywhere in the world for a much longer period of time; a number that is an increase earlier in the month when we tested roughly less than 100,000 a day… Today we’re releasing additional guidance on testing to inform the states as they develop their plans for a phased and very safe reopening.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 27, 2020 |
| April 28 | 1,005,147 / 59,265 | US surpassed 1 million reported cases | Press conference: “Now that our experts believe the worst days of the pandemic are behind us, Americans are looking forward to the safe and rapid reopening of our country.” Reporter Q: [W]hat about the idea of another round of stimulus payments to American taxpayers directly? “Well, I like the idea of payroll tax cuts. I’ve liked that from the beginning. That was the thing that I really would love to see happen… It’s not the big distribution, and it would really be an incentive for people to come back to work and for employers to hire.” On daily testing capacity: “Question from reporter: Some health experts say the U.S. needs 5 million tests per day by June in order to safely reopen. You unveiled a plan yesterday that will increase testing, but not by that much. Why not? And can you get to that benchmark? President Trump: Well, it will increase it and it’ll increase it by much more than that in the very near future. […] Q: Did I hear you saying you’re confident you can surpass 5 million tests per day? President Trump: Oh, well, we’re going to be there very soon. If you look at the numbers, it could be that we’re getting very close. I mean, I don’t have the exact numbers.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 28, 2020 Executive Order: “It is important that processors of beef, pork, and poultry (“meat and poultry”) in the food supply chain continue operating and fulfilling orders to ensure a continued supply of protein for Americans… Under the delegation of authority provided in this order, the Secretary of Agriculture shall take all appropriate action under that section to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations consistent with the guidance for their operations jointly issued by the CDC and OSHA.” Source: Donald Trump, “Executive Order on Delegating Authority Under the DPA with Respect to Food Supply Chain Resources During the National Emergency Caused by the Outbreak of COVID-19,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 28, 2020 |
| April 29 | 1,031,659 / 61,655 | Meeting with Governor of Louisiana: On daily testing capacity: “Q Mr. President, on testing: Yesterday, you said that we will very soon be testing 5 million people… THE PRESIDENT: Everyone kept saying, ‘You said there’d be five.’ That was a study that came out. Somebody came out with a study of 5 million people… Do I think we will? I think we will, but I never said it. We’re testing millions of people… But somebody started throwing around 5 million. I didn’t say 5 million. Somebody said 5 million. I think it might have been the Harvard report. There was a report from Harvard and they said 5 million. Q You were asked about it and you said, ‘We will be there very soon.’ THE PRESIDENT: Well, we will be there. But I didn’t say it. I mean, I’m — I didn’t say it. But somebody came out with a report saying 5 million. It sounds like a lot.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Governor Edwards of Louisiana,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 29, 2020 Roundtable with business executives: Reporter Q: Mr. President, if there is another round of aid for the states and communities, are you going to try to restrict that aid from going to sanctuary cities and states? “I don’t think you should have sanctuary cities if they get that kind of aid. You know, if you’re going to get aid to the cities and states for the kind of numbers you’re talking about — billions of dollars — I don’t think you should have sanctuary cities… I don’t see helping cities and states if they’re going to be sanctuary. Because all sanctuary means to me is it’s protecting a lot of criminals and — and others — many people.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Vice President Pence in Roundtable with Industry Executives on the Plan for Opening Up America Again,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 29, 2020 |
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| April 30 | 1,062,446 / 63,856 | The Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in an official statement: “The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified… The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.” | Public remarks: “Our cherished seniors enrich every aspect of our national life… We’ll show them the same love and loyalty they’ve shown us and they’ve shown our nation every day of their lives. No effort will be spared to give America’s seniors the care and support and devotion and love they have earned and that they deserve.” On the number of coronavirus deaths: “Through aggressive actions and the devotion of our doctors and nurses, however, we have held our fatality rate far below hard-hit other countries such as Spain and Italy and United Kingdom and Sweden. We’re way below other countries… [O]ur death totals — our numbers — per million people are really very, very strong. We’re very proud of the job we’ve done.” Reporter Q: [H]ave you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of this virus? President Trump: “Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they’re like the public relations agency for China.” Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump on Protecting America’s Seniors,” whitehouse.gov, May 1, 2020 Meeting with New Jersey governor: Reporter Q: Mr. President, on operation — on this vaccine operation, “Warp Speed,” who’s in charge of that? And are you overpromising when you say you’re going to have 300 million doses of vaccine in eight months? President Trump: “No, I’m not over-promising. I don’t know who said it, but whatever the maximum is, whatever you can humanly do, we’re going to have.” Reporter Q: And who is in charge of that Operation Warp Speed? President Trump: “We have — you know who is in charge of it? Honestly? I am. I’ll tell you, I’m really in charge of it. I could say somebody else. I will say, we’re dealing with, as you know, the General and the Admiral. They’re very much in charge. But I think probably, more than anything, I’m in charge. And I’m the one that gets blamed. And I get blamed anyway.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Murphy of New Jersey,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 30, 2020 Twitter: “Despite reports to the contrary, Sweden is paying heavily for its decision not to lockdown. As of today, 2462 people have died there, a much higher number than the neighboring countries of Norway (207), Finland (206) or Denmark (443). The United States made the correct decision!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Apr. 30, 2020 |
| May 1 | 1,092,815 / 65,753 | President Trump went to Camp David, his first time leaving the White House grounds since Mar. 28 when he visited the US Navy hospital ship Comfort in Norfolk, Virginia. Source: Reuters, “Trump Leaves White House Grounds for First Time since March 28,” reuters.com, May 1, 2020 | Recognition ceremony: “Not long ago, models predicted that between 1.5 million and 2.2 million people would have died in the United States without the mitigation. Through our aggressive response and the remarkable commitment and bravery of American people, we have saved thousands and thousands of lives… And hopefully, we’re going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number nevertheless. It’s a horrible thing. It could’ve been stopped. It should’ve been stopped at source, but it wasn’t… Because we’ve flattened the curve, slowed the spread, and massively expanded our healthcare capacity, we’re now in the process of gradually reopening our country. And it’s being done with a tremendous — a tremendous gusto and vigor… It’s a strategy guided by science, evidence, facts, and reason. A never-ending lockdown would inflict colossal damage on the health and lifespans of our people. Public health is closely tied to economic health. No state or country can long ignore the facts and the truth. And we’re just very proud of the fact that people have put up with so much in order to keep the numbers down to the level." Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in a Presidential Recognition Ceremony: Hard Work, Heroism, and Hope,” whitehouse.com, May 1, 2020 Twitter: “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer was on a late night show using a false talking point over & over again. ‘We don’t have enough testing,’ he would repeat, when he knows we have done a great job on Testing, just like we have on Ventilators and everything else.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 1, 2020 |
| May 2 | 1,122,486 / 67,444 | Twitter: “There is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital [sic] Hill on Monday. Likewise the House, which should return but isn’t because of Crazy Nancy P. The 5 minute Abbott Test will be used.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 2, 2020 |
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| May 3 | 1,152,372 / 68,597 | Fox News Virtual Town Hall at the Lincoln Memorial: On the potential total death toll: “Look, we’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100 thousand people. That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this. This should have been stopped in China… Q That number has changed, Mr. President. You said 50 to 60 — THE PRESIDENT: It’s going up. No, it’s going up. Q You said 60, 70. THE PRESIDENT: I used to say 65,000 — Q Now you’re at 80 to 90. THE PRESIDENT: And now I’m saying 80 or 90, and it goes up and it goes up rapidly. But it’s still going to be, no matter how you look at it, at the very lower end of the plane, if we did the shutdown.” On vaccine development: "We are very confident that we’re going to have a vaccine at the end of the year… Now, the doctors would say, ‘Well, you shouldn’t say that.’ I’ll say what I think. I’ve met with the heads of the big companies. These are great companies. Yeah, I think we’re going to have a vaccine much sooner rather than later.” In response to a viewer question about reports that threats of coronavirus were included in his daily briefings weeks before the first confirmed case on US soil: “On January 23rd, I was told that there could be a virus coming in, but it was of no really import. In other words, it wasn’t, ‘Oh, we’ve going to do something. We got to do something.' It was a brief conversation, and it was only on January 23rd. Shortly thereafter, I closed down the country to China. And we had 20 people, 21 people in the room. I was the only one that wanted to close it down.” In response to a supporter asking about how he speaks to the media: “Look, I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln — nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse. You’re there. You see those press conferences. They come at me with questions that are disgraceful. To be honest, disgraceful. Their manner of presentation and their words.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Fox News Virtual Town Hall,” whitehouse.gov, May 4, 2020 Twitter: “Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S. Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner… ….Fake News got it wrong again, as always, and tens of thousands of lives were saved by my EARLY BAN of China into our Country. The people that we’re allowed were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens, and as such, I welcome them with open arms!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 3, 2020 |
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| May 4 | 1,171,510 / 69,921 | Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview: “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and what’s out there now is very, very strongly leaning toward this [virus] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated—the way the mutations have naturally evolved. A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that it evolved in nature and then jumped species.” Source: Nsikan Akpan and Victoria Jaggard, “Fauci: No Scientific Evidence the Coronavirus Was Made in a Chinese Lab,” nationalgeographic.com, May 4, 2020 | Twitter: “Interesting? By Congress not wanting the special 5 minute testing apparatus, they are saying that they are not “essential”. In any event, we have great testing capacity, and have performed 6.5 million tests, which is more than every country in the world, combined!” “Mexico is sadly experiencing very big CoronaVirus problems, and now California, get this, doesn’t want people coming over the Southern Border. A Classic! They are sooo lucky that I am their President. Border is very tight and the Wall is rapidly being built!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 4, 2020 |
| May 5 | 1,193,813 / 72,271 | Interview with World News Tonight: “This is a situation — who would have ever thought a thing like this could happen? Frankly, I’ve read about and heard about, in 1917, The Great Flu. They call that the Flu, right? The Spanish flu, and it might have killed 100 million people. Probably stopped the First World War ‘cause all the soldiers were getting sick. I mean, it, you know, was probably a cause of stopping the — a World War. But that was our worst. This is a different one. Not as lethal, individually, but more contagious. The level of contagion — the level of its being contagious has never seen before.” David Muir: “Do you believe… that lives will be lost to reopen the country?” President Trump: “It’s possible there will be some because you won’t be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is, but at the same time, we’re going to practice social distancing, we’re going to be washing hands, we’re going to be doing a lot of the things that we’ve learned to do over the last period of time. And we have to get our country back.” Muir: “The University of Washington saying we could have 135,000 Americans dead by August. What do you make of those numbers, Mr. President?” Trump: “[I]f we lose one life it’s too many. But the fact is, the low end, it was 100 to 120,000 to over 200 and 250,000 [projected deaths]. If we’re at 100,000, if we didn’t do what we did, we could have lost 2 million people. We could have lost two and a half and 3 million people, but we did something that was courageous, very expensive, but it was the right thing to do.” Muir: “How difficult has it been to balance the need to project optimism and hope, while at the same time the duty to be honest with the American people about how dire this would be?” […] Trump: “I’ve had tremendous lack of support from Democrats…I thought the Democrats — because this is a crisis. I thought the Democrats would come together and work with us. They really don’t… They said I called it a hoax. No, I called the Democrats a hoax because of what they were saying because when I did the ban they’re out there saying — they call me a racist because I did the ban. They called me xenophobic. Sleepy Joe Biden. He said ‘he’s xenophobic.’ He doesn’t know what the word means.” Source: ABC News, “TRANSCRIPT: ABC News anchor David Muir interviews President Trump in Arizona,” abcnews.go.com, May 6, 2020 Twitter: “Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse! The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 5, 2020 |
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| May 6 | 1,219,066 / 74,799 | Proclamation signing: “This is really the worst attack we’ve ever had. This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center. There’s never been an attack like this. And it should have never happened.” On the status of the coronavirus task force: “[W]e’ll be leaving the task force indefinitely. We’ll see. You know, at a certain point, that’ll end like things end. But we’ll be adding some people to the task force… So we’re keeping the task force for a period of time.” *Reporter Q: Can you explain the change between what you said yesterday about winding down the task force and now, saying you’re going to keep it?… Because it is different from what you said yesterday, sir. “Yeah. Well, I guess, if you think, we’re always winding it down… I thought we could wind it down sooner. But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday. When I started talking about winding it down, I’d get calls from very respected people saying, ‘I think it would be better to keep it going. It’s done such a good job.'” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at Signing of a Proclamation in Honor of National Nurses Day,” whitehouse.gov, May 6, 2020 Meeting with Governor Reynolds of Iowa: “So the media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad. For instance, they would say we have more than China. I don’t think so.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump and Vice President Pence at a Meeting with Governor Reynolds of Iowa”, whitehouse.gov, May 6, 2020 |
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| May 7 | 1,248,040 / 76,928 | Meeting with Governor of Texas: Reporter Q: How is it possible that someone that tested positive for COVID-19 got so close to you? “Testing is not a perfect art. No matter what you do, testing is not a perfect art. So we test once a week. Now we’re going to go testing once a day. But even when you test once a day, somebody could — something happens where they catch something.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Governor Abbott of Texas,” whitehouse.gov, May 7, 2020 Twitter: “This is a big moment in our history because we’re opening up our country again. People are coming out, they’re starting to go around and see what’s happening. They’ve been sort of shut down as the expression goes… People want our country to open up. Now, we want to do it in a safe way… you know all about social distancing, and washing your hands and all of the things we’re supposed to do.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 7, 2020 |
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| May 8 | 1,274,036 / 78,615 | Meeting with Republican Members of Congress: On potential death toll: “You look on the screens, you look on television today, and you see body bags and you see mass graves. And we may be talking about 95,000 people ultimately. We may be talking about something more than that… One person isn’t acceptable, let alone perhaps 100,000.” On opening the country: “You see what’s going on at statehouses all over the country; they want to come back. I think some people don’t want it really to come back for political reasons, which is sick. But the people — the real people, the people that want this country to be great and great again, we can say they want to get back… We’re going into transition. And I call it ‘transition to greatness.’ It’s going to be transition to greatness because we’re going to do something very fast, and we’re going to have a phenomenal year next year.” Reporter Q: Can you bring us up to speed about the member of the Vice President’s staff who has now tested positive for coronavirus?” “She tested very good for a long period of time, and then all of a sudden, today she tested positive. She hasn’t come into contact with me… This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great. The tests are perfect, but something can happen between a test — where it’s good, and then something happens, and all of a sudden — she was tested very recently and tested negative. And then today, I guess, for some reason, she tested positive… I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away, and it’s — we’re not going to see It again, hopefully, after a period of time… You may have some flare-ups next year, but eventually, it’s going to be gone.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Republican Members of Congress,” whitehouse.gov, May 8, 2020 |
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| May 9 | 1,300,696 / 80,037 | Twitter: “TRANSITION TO GREATNESS!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 9, 2020 |
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| May 10 | 1,324,488 / 80,787 | Twitter: “We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA. Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls – didn’t have a clue!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 10, 2020 |
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| May 11 | 1, 342,594 / 81,795 | Press briefing: “To battle a virus, my administration marshaled every resource at our nation’s disposal: public, private, military, economic, scientific, and industrial — all at your disposal. We launched the largest manufacturing ramp-up since the Second World War… In every generation, through every challenge and hardship and danger, America has risen to the task. We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.” Reporter Q: You said in your comments earlier, “We have met the moment. We have prevailed.” To you, sir, is the mission accomplished? “No, we’ve prevailed on testing, is what I’m referring to. That was with regard to testing. You never prevail when you have 90,000 people [dead], 100,000 people; when you have 80,000 people, as of today; when you have this — the kind of death you’re talking about, when you have potentially millions of people throughout the world that are dying. What I’m talking about is: We have a great testing capacity now.” Reporter Q: So when will the rest of America have the same access that members of your own White House have to testing? “If we didn’t get the tests, if we did no tests in the White House, you’d be up complaining, ‘Why aren’t you getting tests for the White House?’ See, we can’t win, because if we didn’t get the tests, you’d be up — I understand you very well, better than you understand yourself — and, frankly, if we didn’t get tests done, you’d be up complaining about the fact that we didn’t have the tests done… As far as Americans getting a test, they should all be able to get a test right now. They should be able to get a test… If people want to get tested, they get tested. We have the greatest capacity in the world… But, for the most part, they shouldn’t want to get tested. There’s no reason. They feel good. They don’t have sniffles. They don’t have sore throats. They don’t have any problem.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Press Briefing on COVID-19 Testing,” whitehouse.gov, May 11, 2020 |
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| May 12 | 1,364,061 / 83,425 | Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in his testimony before the US Senate: “The consequences [of opening prematurely] could be really serious… [T]here is no doubt even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear.” Source: Rev, “Dr. Anthony Fauci & CDC Director Senate Testimony Transcript May 12,” rev.com, May 12, 2020 | Twitter: “Remember this, every Governor who has sky high approval on their handling of the Coronavirus, and I am happy for them all, could in no way have gotten those numbers, or had that success, without me and the Federal Governments help. From Ventilators to Testing, we made it happen!” “California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 12, 2020 |
| May 13 | 1,384,930 / 85,197 | Meeting with governors: “I think they should open the schools, absolutely. I think they should. And it’s had very little impact on young people. And I think that if you’re an instructor, if you’re a teacher, a professor, and you’re over a certain age — like, let’s say, 65 or maybe even, if you want to be conservative, 60 — perhaps you want to stay out for a little while longer.” Reporter Q: Dr. Fauci yesterday was a little cautious on reopening the economy too soon. Do you share his concerns? “Look, he wants to play all sides of the equation… The schools are going to be open… These are young people. These are students… They’re in great shape. Now, when you have an incident, one out of a million, one out of five hundred thou- — will something happen? Perhaps. But, you know, you can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too.” Reporter Q: Sir, when you say Dr. Fauci is playing both sides, are you suggesting that the advice he’s giving to you is different? “Well, I was surprised — I was surprised by his answer, actually, because, you know, it’s just — to me, it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools. The only thing that would be acceptable, as I said, is professors, teachers, et cetera, over a certain age. I think they ought to take it easy for another few weeks — five weeks, four weeks, who knows. Whatever it may be. But I think they have to be careful because this is a disease that attacks age and it attacks health.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Polis of Colorado and Governor Burgum of North Dakota,” whitehouse.gov, May 13, 2020 |
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| May 14 | 1,412,121 / 87,293 | Interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business: “China, I made a great trade deal. The ink wasn’t dry when the plague came over from China… I’m very disappointed in China. I will tell you that right now… We’re of the assumption that by the end of the year we’re going to have a vaccine, and then we have to be able to give it, to use it, on most of our population. I’m actually saying, like with the schools, open the schools. But if a teacher is 65 or older, especially if they have diabetes, if they have a bad heart, if they have a problem, we say relax for a longer period of time. But if you look, there’s been very little damage done to people that are healthy and young, and frankly, medium aged people. But the elderly have been decimated, absolutely.” Reporter Q: Dr. Fauci is saying a different thing. He says he’s worried about spikes turning into outbreaks. “So Anthony is a good person, very good person. I’ve disagreed with him. When I closed the border to China, he disagreed with that. And then ultimately he agreed. And he said I saved hundreds of thousands of lives, which is what happened… I think that we have to open our schools. Young people are very little affected by this.” Source: Factbase, “Interview: Maria Bartiromo Interviews Donald Trump on Fox Business – May 14, 2020,” factba.se, May 14, 2020 Remarks in Pennsylvania: “So we have the best testing in the world. It could be that testing is, frankly, overrated… We have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s common sense.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at Owens & Minor, Inc. Distribution Center | Allentown, PA,” whitehouse.gov, May 14, 2020 Twitter: “Good numbers coming out of States that are opening. America is getting its life back! Vaccine work is looking VERY promising, before end of year. Likewise, other solutions!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 14, 2020 |
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| May 15 | 1,435,098 / 88,895 | Remarks on vaccine development: “As of this morning, almost every state has taken steps to begin reopening, and the American people are doing an extraordinary job of continuing to take precautions while, at the same time, wanting to start. And they will be starting to resume their American way of life… Today I want to update you on the next stage of this momentous medical initiative. It’s called Operation Warp Speed. That means big and it means fast. A massive scientific, industrial, and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project… Its objective is to finish developing and then to manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible. Again, we’d love to see if we could do it prior to the end of the year… And I just want to make something clear. It’s very important: Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump on Vaccine Development,” whitehouse.gov, May 15, 2020 |
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| May 16 | 1,467,065 / 90,113 | Twitter: “We’ve done a GREAT job on Covid response, making all Governors look good, some fantastic (and that’s OK), but the Lamestream Media doesn’t want to go with that narrative, and the Do Nothing Dems talking point is to say only bad about ‘Trump’. I made everybody look good, but me!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 16, 2020 |
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| May 17 | 1,480,349 / 90,978 | Twitter: “The number of Coronavirus cases is strongly trending downward throughout the United States, with few exceptions. Very good news, indeed!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 17, 2020 |
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| May 18 | 1,504,830 / 91,981 | Letter to Director-General of the World Health Organization: “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world… That is why it is my duty, as President of the United States, to inform you that, if the World Health Organization does not commute to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization.” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 18, 2020 Roundtable with restaurant executives: “[I]t came out of China, spread to Europe, but also came here. And the whole world became infected by this horrible thing that they unleashed one way or the other. Not a good situation. Not a good situation. I’m not a man that likes taking that… They knew it was happening. We wanted to go in, others wanted to go in. They wouldn’t let… other countries go in… China should be held responsible for what they’ve done. They have hurt the world very, very badly.” On taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against coronavirus: “I’m taking it — hydroxychloroquine.” Reporter Q: Right now? “Right now. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it.” Reporter Q: Why, sir? “Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right — you know, I’m not going to get hurt by it. It’s been around for 40 years for malaria, for lupus, for other things. I take it. Frontline workers take it. A lot of doctors take it.” Reporter Q: Can you explain, sir, though, you — what is the evidence that it has a preventative effect? “Here we go. Are you ready? Here’s my evidence. I get a lot of positive calls about it.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable with Restaurant Executives and Industry Leaders,” whitehouse.gov, May 18, 2020 |
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| May 19 | 1,528,235 / 93,533 | Remarks: “[M]y administration is launching a sweeping new initiative: the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Through this effort, we are providing $19 billion to support our nation’s agricultural producers, maintain the health of our critical food supply chains, and provide food assistance to American families. Nineteen billion dollars. As part of this program, today we’re announcing 16-billion-dollar direct payments to farmers and ranchers. So $16 billion is going directly to the farmers and ranchers, and it’s authorized by the CARES Act and the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act. We fought hard for this. These payments will compensate farmers for losses related to the global pandemic, caused by China.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump on Supporting our Nation’s Farmers, Ranchers, and Food Supply Chain,” whitehouse.gov, May 19, 2020 Remarks: “But once the virus came in — once the plague, as I call it, came in, I said, ‘How did they let that happen? How did they let that happen?' And how come it didn’t go into other sections of China? Why did they block it from leaving Wuhan but they didn’t block it from going to the rest of the world, including the United States? Why is that? Beijing doesn’t have it; other places don’t have it. So why is it that it was blocked very effectively from leaving that area and going into China, but it went out to the rest of the world, including the United States? And why didn’t they let us go in and help them fix it? So I’m very disappointed in China.” On the safety of taking hydroxychloroquine: Reporter: The FDA has said hydroxychloroquine should not be used outside of a hospital setting or outside of a research study. “No, that’s not what I was told. No… There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people — extremely sick people, people that were ready to die. It was given by, obviously, not friends of the administration… So, immediately, when it came out, they gave a lot of false information, just so you understand. Great studies came out of Italy on hydroxy. You know what I’m talking about, right?… It’s gotten a bad reputation only because I’m promoting it. So I’m obviously a very bad promoter. If anybody else were promoting it, they’d say, ‘This is the greatest thing ever.'” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting,” whitehouse.gov, May 19, 2020 |
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| May 20 | 1,551,095 / 94,936 | Remarks in a meeting with the Governors of Arkansas and Kansas: Reporter Q: Mr. President, with 4 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of the — of the outbreak, what would you have done differently facing this crisis? “Well, nothing. If you take New York and New Jersey — which were very hard hit — we were very, very low. And in terms of morbidity and in terms of — if you look at the death, relatively speaking, we’re at the lowest level along with Germany… But when you do 14 million tests, you’re going to find more cases… We’re finding a lot of people. By doing testing, you’re finding people. So we’re doing 14, Germany is doing 3, South Korea doing 3, and I think they’re number two and three. So we’re way ahead of everybody. But when you do that, you have more cases. So a lot of times, the fake news media will say, ‘You know, there are a lot of cases in the United States.’ Well, if we didn’t do testing at a level that nobody has ever dreamt possible, you wouldn’t have very many cases.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Hutchinson of Arkansas and Governor Kelly of Kansas May 20,” whitehouse.gov, May 20, 2020 Twitter: “Some wacko in China just released a statement blaming everybody other than China for the Virus which has now killed hundreds of thousands of people. Please explain to this dope that it was the ‘incompetence of China’, and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 20, 2020 |
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| May 21 | 1,571,617 / 96,347 | More than 5 million coronavirus cases reported worldwide | Remarks while visiting Ford plant: “A permanent lockdown is not a strategy for a healthy state or a healthy country. Our country wasn’t meant to be shut down. We did the right thing, but now it’s time to open it up. A never-ending lockdown would invite a public health calamity. To protect the health of our people, we must have a functioning economy. And as I said, and I’ll say it 100 times, we’re going to have an incredible year next year, right at the beginning. Even our fourth quarter is going to be very good. There’s a tremendous pent-up demand… Americans who need and want to return to work should not be vilified; they should be supported. Unlike many politicians and journalists, for those who earn a living with their own two hands, working remotely is just not an option.” Source: White House, “Remarks by President Trump at Ford Rawsonville Components Plant,” whitehouse.gov, May 21, 2020 Twitter: “The Wacky Do Nothing Attorney General of Michigan, Dana Nessel, is viciously threatening Ford Motor Company for the fact that I inspected a Ventilator plant without a mask. Not their fault, & I did put on a mask. No wonder many auto companies left Michigan, until I came along!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 21, 2020 |
| May 22 | 1,595,885 / 97,645 | Press briefing: “Today I’m identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogue and mosques as essential places that provide essential services. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship. It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now. If there’s any question, they’re going to have to call me, but they’re not going to be successful in that call.” Source: Rev, “Donald Trump Coronavirus Press Conference Transcript May 22: Says Places of Worship Must Open Immediately,” rev.com, May 22, 2020 |
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| May 23 | 1,622,114 / 98,678 | Twitter: “TRANSITION TO GREATNESS!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 23, 2020 |
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| May 24 | 1,637,456 / 99,293 | Twitter: “Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the Country!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 24, 2020 |
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| May 25 | 1,662,114 / 99,798 | Memorial Day Remarks: "In recent months, our nation and the world have been engaged in a new form of battle against an invisible enemy. Once more, the men and women of the United States military have answered the call to duty and raced into danger. Tens of thousands of service members and National Guardsmen are on the frontlines of our war against this terrible virus — caring for patients, delivering critical supplies, and working night and day to safeguard our citizens." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at a Memorial Day Ceremony | Baltimore, MD," whitehouse.gov, May 25, 2020 Twitter: “Great reviews on our handling of Covid 19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus. Ventilators, Testing, Medical Supply Distribution, we made a lot of Governors look very good - And got no credit for so doing. Most importantly, we helped a lot of great people!” "Sleepy Joe Biden (mostly his reps.) went crazy when I banned, in late January, people coming in from China. He called me 'xenophobic' & then went equally 'nuts' when we let in 44,000 people - until he was told they were American citizens coming home. He later apologized!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 25, 2020 |
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| May 26 | 1,678,843 / 100,572 | Remarks: "We’re safely reopening our country while aggressively protecting the vulnerable, especially our seniors. We’re telling our seniors to stay back a little bit. Stay back. Let this thing pass… We’re using every tool at our disposal to protect our nursing homes from outbreaks. You saw the disaster of how badly some of the governors handled nursing homes. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done... We need our churches and our synagogues and our mosques... We want them open, and we want them open as soon as possible… And if I have to, I will override any governor that wants to play games. If they want to play games, that’s okay, but we will win. And we have many different ways where I can override them." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump on Protecting Seniors with Diabetes," whitehouse.gov, May 26, 2020 Twitter: “For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number. That’s 15 to 20 times more than we will lose. I shut down entry from China very early!” "....One person lost to this invisible virus is too much, it should have been stopped at its source, China, but I acted very quickly, and made the right decisions. Many of the current political complainers thought, at the time, that I was moving far to [sic] fast, like Crazy Nancy!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 26, 2020 |
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| May 27 | 1,698,523 / 102,107 | US surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths | Twitter: “The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19. Wrong, I was very fast, even doing the Ban on China long before anybody thought necessary!” "We pass 15,000,000 Tests Today, by far the most in the World. Open Safely!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 27, 2020 |
| May 28 | 1,719,827 / 103,330 | Twitter: "We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000. To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!" “All over the World the CoronaVirus, a very bad 'gift' from China, marches on. Not good!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 28, 2020 Remarks: "Mexico is having a very, very hard time, as you know, with COVID, especially along the border... with Tijuana and various places along the border. And fortunately, we have brand-new wall along there, and the wall is saving us... Sadly, the area along our border is the highest — their highest percentage of cases and problems. And we are not letting people into our country... Brazil now — we have the ban on. The ban has been put on, and it’s a very strong ban." White House, "Remarks by President Trump and Vice President Pence During Briefing on the 2020 Hurricane Season," whitehouse.gov, May 28, 2020 |
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| May 29 | 1,737,950 / 104,542 | Remarks with industry executives: “The best strategy for public health is to aggressively protect the most vulnerable while allowing younger and healthier Americans to work safely... To maintain the health and safety of our society, we must also maintain the health of our economy. There’s a reason why our nation’s life expectancy is closely correlated with economic development. A never-ending shutdown would increase, not reduce, the total loss of life in the United States, while failing to focus resources on the most vulnerable.” Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable Discussion with Industry Executives on Reopening," whitehouse.gov, May 30, 2020 Statement on China: “China’s cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide. Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities... The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is it that China shut off infected people from Wuhan to all other parts of China? It went nowhere else. It didn’t go to Beijing; it went nowhere else. But allowed them to freely travel throughout the world, including Europe and the United States.” Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump on Actions Against China," whitehouse.gov, May 30, 2020 Twitter: “CHINA!” Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, May 29, 2020 |
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| May 30 | 1,761,503 / 105,557 | Remarks at SpaceX NASA Launch: “As you know, this spring, our nation has endured the pain and hardship of a global pandemic. As we usher in a new era of manned spacecraft, we are reminded that America is always in the process of transcending great challenges. Our Nation is blessed with limitless reserves of talent, tenacity, and resolve. The same spirit of American determination that sends our people into space, will conquer this disease on Earth. It should have never happened.” Source: Rev, “Donald Trump Speech Transcript at Kennedy Space Center After SpaceX NASA Launch,” rev.com, May 30, 2020 |
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| May 31 | 1,787,680 / 106,195 | ||
| June 1 | 1,802,470 / 106,925 | Statement on protests: "All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that for George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain, but we cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protestors to be drown out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities and as their president, I will fight to keep them safe... Small business owners have seen the dreams utterly destroyed. New York’s finest have been hit in the face with bricks, brave nurses who have battled the virus are afraid to leave their homes... America needs creation not destruction, cooperation not contempt, security not anarchy, healing not hatred, justice not chaos." Source: White House, "Statement by the President," whitehouse.gov, June 1, 2020 Interview on Newsmax: "Sean Spicer: You passed criminal justice reform and increased funding historically to Black colleges. As a property owner, you opened a club that welcomed Blacks and Jews as a time when others wouldn't. Does it hurt you to know that some people don't recognize that? Donald Trump: Well, it does hurt me, and we also have -- if you look before the plague, it came in from China, which should have never happened. They should have never allowed that to happen. But before that happened, we had the best Black unemployment rate in the history of our country, more homeownership, more everything... They [China] should have stopped it at the source but they didn't. And the whole world was affected so badly, so devastatingly with all that death. Forget about the money, the death." Source: Factbase, "Interview: Sean Spicer Interviews Donald Trump on Newsmax's 'Spicer & Co.' - June 3, 2020," factba.se, June 3, 2020 |
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| June 2 | 1,827,425 / 108,059 | ||
| June 3 | 1,842,101 / 109,142 | Interview with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News radio show: "[T]he fake news makes everything look bad, no matter what you do. We did a great job on ventilators. We’re giving them now to countries all over the world, we’re making them. When I started, we had practically none. The cupboards were bare. The Obama administration left us practically nothing. You don’t hear those stories. They don’t write about that. We tested number 16 million yesterday, much more than anybody else. You don’t hear that we’ve done well in testing. They always say, 'Well, why not more?' and yet Germany is at 3 million. We’re 16 million. We have incredible testing now. We’ve done a great job, but we don’t get credit for it, but hopefully, the people understand." Source: Rev, "Donald Trump Radio Interview Transcript: Admits Going to Bunker During Protests, But Was for an 'Inspection’'" rev.com, June 3, 2020: |
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| June 4 | 1,862,656 / 110,415 | ||
| June 5 | 1,891,690 / 111,390 | President Trump signed H.R. 7010, the “Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020,” into law: "The Act provides greater flexibility to restaurants, hotels, and other small businesses to use Federal Government loans under the Paycheck Protection Program to pay for payroll, employee benefits, and other expenses while weathering the coronavirus outbreak." Source: White House, "Statement by the President," whitehouse.gov, June 5, 2020 | Remarks in Maine: "All the states are being opened, they’re making a lot of money. That’s why we had the good numbers today. You have a governor [in the state of Maine] that doesn’t know what she’s doing, and she’s like a dictator, you know?... When is she opening the state, if ever?... And you don’t have a very big problem up here. So why is she doing this?... No, no, how does she do a thing like this? She’s going to destroy your state. All right, look, I’m not a fan." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable On Supporting America’s Commercial Fishermen," whitehouse.gov, June 5, 2020 Remarks while touring a medical supply facility: "Remember this: When you have more tests, you have more cases... And we had the greatest economy in the history of our country... African American, Hispanic American, Asian American — the greatest employment and unemployment numbers we’ve ever had... The best approach to protect the health of our citizens is to focus our resources on safeguarding those at highest risk, while allowing those at lowest risk to go and resume economic activity, including education... But as the global pandemic has shown, once and for all, the United States must produce essential equipment, supplies, pharmaceuticals, and technologies for ourselves. And we cannot rely on China and all of these other countries that, in bad times, take advantage of us and rip us off. We don’t do that anymore. We’re moving things back into our country." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at Puritan Medical Products," whitehouse.gov, June 5, 2020 Remarks on new jobs report: "Vaccines, by the way, I had a meeting yesterday on vaccines. We’re doing incredibly well with that. I think you’re going to have some very positive surprises. And therapeutics, likewise, we’re doing extremely well. Cures, we’re doing well. I think those two words really blend in with each other, but tremendous progress is being made on vaccines... I hope that the lockdown — governors, I don’t know why they continue to lock down, because if you look at Georgia, if you look at Florida, if you look at South Carolina, if you look at so many different places that have opened up — I don’t want to name all of them, but the ones that are most energetic about opening, they are doing tremendous business. And that — this is what these [increased job] numbers are all about... And, by the way, when you do more testing, you have more cases. We have more cases than anybody because we do more testing than anybody. It’s pretty simple." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump on the Jobs Numbers Report," whitehouse.gov, June 8, 2020 |
| June 6 | 1,920,904 / 112,096 | ||
| June 7 | 1,938,823 / 112,469 | ||
| June 8 | 1,956,421 / 113,055 | ||
| June 9 | 1,973,797 / 114,148 | Twitter: "I am allocating $2.96 BILLION in Emergency Solutions Grants to support homeless Americans and those at risk of becoming homeless because of job or wage loss, or illness due to COVID-19. We are taking care of our Nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Thanks @SecretaryCarson!" "THE REAWAKENING OF AMERICA!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 9, 2020 |
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| June 10 | 1,994,283 / 115,130 | Remarks at a roundtable discussion: On holding campaign rallies: "We’re going to start our rallies back up now... The first one, we believe, will be in Oklahoma — in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A beautiful, new venue — brand-new. And we’re looking forward to it. They’ve done a great job with COVID, as you know, in the state of Oklahoma. We’re going to be coming into Florida — do a big one in Florida, a big one in Texas. They’re all going to be big. We’re going to Arizona." On China: "The stock market is almost as high as it was prior to the plague floating in from China. It was a plague that floated in from China. Now they’re learning that it may have been much earlier, which bears out exactly what I’ve been saying." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable Discussion," whitehouse.gov, June 10, 2020 |
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| June 11 | 2,016,027 / 116,034 | US surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases | |
| June 12 | 2,038,344 / 116,825 | Remarks at a roundtable discussion: "[Y]ou had a couple of hours where if you bought a barrel of oil, you bought it for $37 — as if they gave you $37. Okay? There’s never been a thing like that ever. And now I see that it’s getting close to $40 a barrel and you’re back in business, and we got it done fast and we got Russia together with Saudi Arabia, and they cut production. And they got it back fast, and we’re very, very proud of it. The supply changed rapidly with COVID-19, or whatever you want to call it. I had never heard so many names. You have about 30 names you can call this thing... I call it 'the plague from China.' 'The plague.' And it’s not good... it could have been stopped. It could have been stopped in China, but they decided not to do that. And we’ll have to figure that one out, won’t we?" Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump During a Roundtable on Transition to Greatness: Restoring, Rebuilding, and Renewing | Dallas, TX," whitehouse.gov, June 12, 2020 |
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| June 13 | 2,038,344 / 116,825 | Speech at West Point graduation: "The depth and breadth of the U.S. Military’s contributions to our society are an everlasting inspiration to us all. I want to take this opportunity to thank all members of America’s Armed Forces in every branch — active duty, National Guard, and reserve — who stepped forward to help battle the invisible enemy — the new virus that came to our shores from a distant land called China. We will vanquish the virus. We will extinguish this plague." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump at the 2020 United States Military Academy at West Point Graduation Ceremony," whitehouse.gov, June 13, 2020 |
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| June 14 | 2,085,769 / 117,858 | Presidential Message: "As our Nation continues to face the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, we acknowledge the important role the Army has played in the all-of-America response effort. The United States Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve Soldiers helped mount a nationwide response to this crisis that truly embodies their motto of 'This We’ll Defend.' In New York, the United States Army Corps of Engineers created and converted alternate care facilities, providing extra space for thousands of patients. In Washington State, Army healthcare professionals deployed to provide medical support against the emergent virus. And, in Maryland, researchers with the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command have worked tirelessly to develop coronavirus countermeasures." Source: Donald Trump, "Presidential Message on the 245th Birthday of the United States Army," whitehouse.gov, June 14, 2020 Presidential Message: "Over the past several months, the hardships of the coronavirus have lowered our country’s blood and platelet supply to critical levels, and the need to donate blood has never been more acute... Many of our Nation’s blood banks are operating with depleted stocks, and the majority of them rarely have on hand more than a single day’s supply of Type O blood, which is critical because it can be used to meet the blood needs of any patient. During this challenging time, let us commit to raising awareness of the lifesaving act of donating blood." Source: Donald Trump, "Presidential Message on World Blood Donor Day, 2020," whitehouse.gov, June 14, 2020 |
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| June 15 | 2,104,346 / 118,283 | Twitter: "Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!!!" "The Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies. Won’t work!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 15, 2020 Presidential Message: "Over the past several months, the coronavirus has posed a significant health risk to all Americans. Unfortunately, men are less likely to visit or consult with a medical provider when faced with a medical issue or concern, increasing the chances of complications with any illness, including the coronavirus, that could be avoided with early detection and treatment. Accordingly, it is critical that men who show symptoms of the coronavirus, including shortness of breath, cough, fever, aches, or chills, immediately contact their doctor or healthcare provider. Doing so will ensure that they receive the care they need and help prevent the spread of this disease." Source: Donald Trump, "Presidential Message on Men's Health Week, 2020," whitehouse.gov, June 15, 2020 |
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| June 16 | 2,132,321 / 119,132 | Remarks: "A great jobs market and thriving economy is probably the best thing that we can do to help the black, Hispanic, Asian communities. We saw that just recently, prior to the virus that came in from China just a few months ago. What a horrible thing it was all over the world — 188 countries now. And I just want to say we’ve done incredibly well. We’re doing well. Things are happening that nobody can even believe. Our country is opening up. And it’s opening up rapidly." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump at Signing of an Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities," whitehouse.gov, June 16, 2020 |
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| June 17 | 2,155,572 / 119,941 | Interview with the Wall Street Journal: "Masks are a double-edge sword. People touch them. And they grab them and I see it all the time. They come in, they take the mask. Now they’re holding it now in their fingers. And they drop it on the desk and then they touch their eye and they touch their nose... I see Biden. It’s like his whole face is covered. It’s like he put a knapsack over his face. He probably likes it that way. He feels good that way because he does. He seems to feel good in a mask, you know, feels better than he does without the mask, which is a strange situation." Source: WSJ Staff, "Transcript of President Trump’s Interview With The Wall Street Journal," wsj.com, June 18, 2020 Remarks: "We have dramatically expanded telehealth for our nation’s veterans. And, with COVID, it’s really become probably the hottest thing there is in medicine. Wouldn’t you say? I think so. It’s gone up, in terms of usage, by hundreds of times. It was not picking up until COVID came along, and now it’s one of the hottest things you have going in the medical world, allowing people to consult with doctors from the comfort of their homes and not having to go out and not having to make long trips. And they get tremendous advice, I hope." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump at Announcement of PREVENTS Task Force Roadmap," whitehouse.gov, June 17, 2020 |
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| June 18 | 2,178,710 / 120,688 | Remarks at a small business roundtable: "As a result of the virus, 22 percent of small businesses were forced to close earlier this year, including 41 percent of black-owned businesses. But under my administration’s strategy to vanquish the virus and restart our economy, small businesses across the nation are now safely reopening — all over the nation, they’re reopening at levels like nobody’s seen before." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump During a Roundtable with Governors on the Reopening of America’s Small Businesses," whitehouse.gov, June 18, 2020 |
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| June 19 | 2,215,618 / 121,407 | Twitter: "Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football. They are planning a very safe and controlled opening. However, if they don’t stand for our National Anthem and our Great American Flag, I won’t be watching!!!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 19, 2020 |
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| June 20 | 2,248,029 / 121,980 | Campaign rally in Oklahoma: "We’ve tested now 25 million people. It’s probably 20 million people more than anybody else. Germany’s done a lot. South Korea has done a lot... Here’s the bad part. When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please. They test and they test. We had tests and people don’t know what’s going on. We got tests, we got another one over here. The young man’s 10-years-old. He’s got the sniffles. He’ll recover in about 15 minutes. That’s a case, add him to it... By the way, it’s a disease without question, has more names than any disease in history. I can name, 'Kung flu.' I can name, 19 different versions of names. Many call it a virus, which it is." Source: Rev, “Donald Trump Tulsa, Oklahoma Rally Speech Transcript,” rev.com, June 21, 2020 |
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| June 21 | 2,275,645 / 122,247 | Twitter: "Our Coronavirus testing is so much greater (25 million tests) and so much more advanced, that it makes us look like we have more cases, especially proportionally, than other countries. My message on that is very clear!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 21, 2020 |
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| June 22 | 2,302,288 / 122,610 | Interview with Scripps Television: "We do more testing than any country in the world by far, 25 million tests... You're showing people that are asymptomatic. You're showing people that have very little problem. You're showing young people that don't have a problem, but we're doing so much testing 25 million tests. Nobody thought that was possible." Reporter Q: But did you ask to slow it [testing] down? "If it did slow down, frankly, I think we're way ahead of ourselves. If you want to know the truth. We've done too good a job. Because every time we go out with 25 million tests, you're going to find more people. So then they say, oh, uh, we have more cases in the United States. The reason we have more cases because we do more testing than any other country by far, by probably 20 million people. So when we have more cases, you look at some of these countries that don't even report. You think China's reporting their numbers. Do you think that other countries, I won't mention names, are reporting that numbers? We are so far advanced in testing and in some ways that hurts us." Source: Factbase "Interview: Joe St. George of Scripps Television Interviews Donald Trump - June 22, 2020," factba.se Interview with CBN News: "You know, we were sailing and then we got hit with the Chinese virus, but we were sailing. We were so far up and we were doing very well. And then all of a sudden it was an artificial situation that happened to us. So we had to turn it off. We had to turn off the economy. We did the right thing. We saved millions of lives and now we're turning it back on and we're doing record business. We're doing record jobs. As you know, were announced last week we have record retail sales was announced last week and I think it's going to be a V-shape." Source: Factbase, "Interview: David Brody of CBN News Interviews Donald Trump at The White House - June 22, 2020," factba.se, June 22, 2020 |
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| June 23 | 2,336,615 / 123,473 | Trump Administration temporarily suspended new work visas and expanded restrictions on new green cards: "President Trump is extending the pause on new immigrant visas through the end of the year to ensure we continue putting American workers first during our ongoing coronavirus recovery." Source: White House, "President Donald J. Trump Is Putting American Workers First as We Restore Our Economy to Greatness," whitehouse.gov, June 22, 2020 | Press briefing: Reporter Q: Mr. President, at that rally, when you said you asked your people to slow down testing, were you just kidding or do you have a plan to slow down testing? "I don’t kid. Let me just tell you — let me make it clear: We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world... By having more tests, we find more cases... But what’s happened is, because of all of the cases that we find, we have a very low mortality rate, just about the best in the world. So that’s the advantage to the testing, along with other things. But just remember this: The reason we have more cases than other countries is because our testing is so much... Here’s what I say: Testing is a double-edged sword. In one way, it tells you you have cases. In another way, you find out where the cases are and you do a good job. We are doing a great job. We have never been credited for it. We’re doing the best testing job anywhere in the world. We’re doing the best ventilator job anywhere in the world. We’re now supplying ventilators to the entire world... We’ve done a great job. We have not been given credit for it." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure," whitehouse.gov, June 23, 2020 Campaign rally in Arizona: "But I said the other night, 'There’s never been anything where they have so many names.' I could give you 19 or 20 names for that, right? It’s got all different names. 'Wuhan.' 'Wuhan' was catching on. 'Coronavirus,' right? [Audience member: 'Kung flu!'] 'Kung flu,' yeah. Kung flu. 'COVID.' 'COVID-19.' 'COVID.' I said, 'What’s the ‘19’?' 'COVID-19.' Some people can’t explain what the 19 — give me the — 'COVID-19.' I said, 'That’s an odd name.' I could give you many, many names. Some people call it the 'Chinese flu,' the 'China flu.' Right?... I’ve never seen anything like it. But here’s the story: We are going to be stronger than ever before, and it’s going to be soon." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at a Turning Point Action Address to Young Americans," whitehouse.gov, June 23, 2020 Remarks on border security: "Using our emergency public health authorities, we prevented a coronavirus catastrophe on the southern border, shutting down human smuggling and swiftly returning the crossers — we call them 'crossers.' They cross now, and we bring them right back. In the old days, it would take years to get them back. They wouldn’t get them back. Other administrations, like the previous administration, essentially didn’t bring them back. Without these public health measures, the southern border would be a global epicenter of the viral transmission. And if you look at some of the towns on the other side of the wall — as an example, in California, we have a certain area that is heavily infected on the Mexico side. And if we didn’t have a border wall there, it would be a — it would be really a catastrophic situation." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable on Border Security | Yuma, AZ," whitehouse.gov, June 23, 2020 |
| June 24 | 2,374,282 / 124,281 | President Trump hosted the President of Poland as the first foreign leader to visit since the pandemic began | Statement: "The COVID-19 pandemic further underscores the importance of these values and the urgency to defend and promote them. The United States and Poland, in concert with other Allies and like-minded partners, will work together to rebuild our economies to be stronger, more resilient, and more closely integrated; protect our critical infrastructure and technology; and diversify our supply chains. We will also join efforts to combat disinformation, especially historical truths relating to WWII. The United States and Poland were proud to help one another through the COVID-19 pandemic, and we pledge to continue our close cooperation as we work to find therapeutics and vaccines." Source: White House, "Joint Statement by President Donald J. Trump and President Andrzej Duda," whitehouse.gov, June 23, 2020 |
| June 25 | 2,414,870 / 126,977 | Fox News Town Hall: On the economy: "Don't forget: Before the China plague came in — and it's the China plague — before that came in, we had the best job numbers we’ve ever had. We had the best economy we’ve ever had. We had the best stock market we’ve ever had, which, by the way, is getting very close to those numbers anyway. And in NASDAQ, it’s actually beat those numbers." On testing: "So, we have more cases because we do the greatest testing. If we didn’t do testing, we’d have no cases. Other countries — they don’t test millions. So we’re up to almost 30 million tests. So when you do 30 million, you’re going to have a kid with the sniffles, and they’ll say it’s coronavirus — whatever you want to call it. I said the other night, 'There are so many names to this.' I could name 19 names, like 'Corona-19.' But I could name 19 names. But the fact is that there’s never been a thing like this. We’ve done 30 million — almost. We’ll be there probably today or tomorrow. Thirty million tests. And when you do tests, you have cases… In some cases, it’s people that didn’t even know they were sick. Maybe they weren’t. But it shows up in a test… And sometimes I jokingly say or sarcastically say: If we didn’t do tests, we’d look great. But you know what? It’s not the right thing to do." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump in a Fox News Town Hall | Green Bay, WI," whitehouse.gov, June 25, 2020 Twitter: "Coronavirus deaths are way down. Mortality rate is one of the lowest in the World. Our Economy is roaring back and will NOT be shut down. 'Embers' or flare ups will be put out, as necessary!" "The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 25, 2020 |
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| June 26 | 2,459,472 / 127,640 | White House Coronavirus Task Force held first public briefing in 2 months | Remarks: "I mean, we have a problem that has about 22 different names, but I’ll just call it 'the plague.' But before the plague struck, we had the lowest African American and Hispanic American, Asian American unemployment ever. We had the most jobs we’ve ever had, almost 160 million jobs. We’ve never been in a position like that. Women were thriving. Best numbers ever. And since my election, more than half of those jobs — more than half; first time that’s ever happened — went to women. But now we want to get that all back." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board Meeting," whitehouse.gov, June 26, 2020 |
| June 27 | 2,504,175 / 128,152 | Presidential message: "Many individuals suffering from PTSD also struggle with depression and substance abuse. Diagnosis and treatment of this disorder are critical. Unfortunately, far too many Americans suffering from PTSD don’t get the care they need, a problem that has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus. That is one of the reasons why we have increased Medicare telehealth coverage under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, providing those who are suffering from PTSD with expanded access to medical care from the comfort and safety of their own homes." Source: White House, "Presidential Message on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day, 2020," whitehouse.gov, June 27, 2020 Twitter: "Corrupt Joe Biden said yesterday that we have over '120 million' people dead of Coronavirus!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 27, 2020 |
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| June 28 | 2,545,250 / 128,437 | More than 10 million coronavirus cases reported worldwide | |
| June 29 | 2,581,229 / 128,783 | White House summary of COVID-19 briefings to date: "Since January 2020, the Trump Administration has led over 320 briefings – including 27 governors’ briefings – with over 147,000 State, local, and Tribal participants." Source: White House, "Readout from the Vice President’s Governors Briefing on COVID-19 Response & Recovery," whitehouse.gov, June 29, 2020 | |
| June 30 | 2,624,873 / 130,122 | Twitter: "As I watch the Pandemic spread its ugly face all across the world, including the tremendous damage it has done to the USA, I become more and more angry at China. People can see it, and I can feel it!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 30, 2020 |
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| July 1 | 2,679,230 / 130,798 | US reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases in one day for the first time | Interview with Blake Burman on Fox Business: "I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that, at some point, that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope." Reporter Q: You still believe so, disappear and-- "Well, I do. I do. Yes, sure, at some point. And I think we're going to have a vaccine very soon too." Source: Fox Business, "Trump wants to incentivize Americans to go back to work," video.foxbusiness.com, July 1, 2020 |
| July 2 | 2,732,531 / 131,448 | Jobs report speech: "And the [coronavirus] crisis is being handled... China was way early and they’re getting under control just now. And Europe was way early, and they’re getting under control. We followed them, with this terrible China virus, and we are likewise getting under control. Some areas that were very hard-hit are now doing very well. Some were doing very well, and we thought they may be gone and they flare up, and we’re putting out the fires. But other places were long before us, and they’re now — it’s like life; it’s got a life. And we’re putting out that life, because that’s a bad life that we’re talking about." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump on the Jobs Numbers Report," whitehouse.gov, July 2, 2020 Remarks: "Following the arrival of the plague from China — and that’s what it is; it’s a plague and it should have never happened. China should have never let that happen, but China did allow it to happen. We just signed a brand-new trade deal, and the ink wasn’t even dry when this came over. But we raced into action to save our nation’s small businesses. We passed over $3 trillion in historic relief measures — $3 trillion; think of that — including over $670 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a tremendous success, as you can see by the numbers." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at Spirit of America Showcase," whitehouse.gov, July 2, 2020 Twitter: "There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country. This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 2, 2020 |
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| July 3 | 2,784,452 / 132,074 | Speech at Mount Rushmore: "As we begin this Fourth of July weekend, the First Lady and I wish each and every one of you a very, very Happy Independence Day... Let us also send our deepest thanks to our wonderful veterans, law enforcement, first responders, and the doctors, nurses, and scientists working tirelessly to kill the virus. They’re working hard. I want to thank them very, very much." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at South Dakota’s 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration | Keystone, South Dakota," whitehouse.gov, July 4, 2020 |
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| July 4 | 2,841,906 / 132,339 | Fourth of July speech: "[W]e got hit by the virus that came from China. And we’ve made a lot of progress; our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, and rears back its ugly face in another area. But we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned how to put out the flame. We’ve made ventilators where there were none by the tens of thousands, to the point that we have far more than we need, and we are now distributing them to many foreign countries, as a gesture of goodwill... We are unleashing our nation’s scientific brilliance. And we’ll likely have a therapeutic and/or vaccine solution long before the end of the year." Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump at the 2020 Salute to America," whitehouse.gov, July 5, 2020 Twitter: "Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases. If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News..... ....In a certain way, our tremendous Testing success gives the Fake News Media all they want, CASES. In the meantime, Deaths and the all important Mortality Rate goes down. You don’t hear about that from the Fake News, and you never will. Anybody need any Ventilators???" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 4, 2020 |
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| July 5 | 2,886,267 / 132,601 | Twitter: "New China Virus Cases up (because of massive testing), deaths are down, 'low and steady'. The Fake News Media should report this and also, that new job numbers are setting records!" "China has caused great damage to the United States and the rest of the World!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 5, 2020 |
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| July 6 | 2,932,596 / 132,979 | Presidential message: "As our country continues to combat the unprecedented challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the FAA and its workforce have worked tirelessly to keep the skies open and safe. Nearly 900 flights helped more than 80,000 United States citizens traveling in 133 countries return home, and more than 800 FEMA flights delivered roughly one billion gloves, gowns, and other essential supplies to medical workers." Source: Donald Trump, "Presidential Message on National Air Traffic Control Day, 2020," whitehouse.gov, July 6, 2020 Twitter: "Deaths from the China Virus are down 39%, while our great testing program continues to lead the World, by FAR! Why isn’t the Fake News reporting that Deaths are way down? It is only because they are, indeed, FAKE NEWS!" "BREAKING NEWS: The Mortality Rate for the China Virus in the U.S. is just about the LOWEST IN THE WORLD! Also, Deaths in the U.S. are way down, a tenfold decrease since the Pandemic height (and, our Economy is coming back strong!)." "The Democrats would not have BANNED travel from heavily infected China, especially so early, therefore, far more people would have died. Corrupt Joe Biden now admits this!!!" "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!" "Corrupt Joe Biden and the Democrats don’t want to open schools in the Fall for political reasons, not for health reasons! They think it will help them in November. Wrong, the people get it!" "Why does the Lamestream Fake News Media REFUSE to say that China Virus deaths are down 39%, and that we now have the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World. They just can’t stand that we are doing so well for our Country!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 6, 2020 |
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| July 7 | 2,982,900 / 133,972 | Remarks: "You know, our mortality rate is, right now, at a level that people don’t talk about, but it’s down tenfold. Tenfold. So if you look at — deaths are way down from this horrible China virus, and it’s a disgrace that it happened. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did... Because we’re doing more testing, we have more cases. If we did half the testing, we would have far fewer cases. But people don’t view it that way... So we’re going to be putting a lot of pressure on: Open your schools in the fall... And now we’re open, and we want to stay open and we will stay open. We’re not closing. We’ll put out the fires as they come out. I call them 'embers' and 'fires,' and whatever you want to call them." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump on Safely Reopening America’s Schools," whitehouse.gov, July 7, 2020 |
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| July 8 | 3,047,671 / 134,862 | US surpassed 3 million coronavirus cases | Remarks: "I’m proud to further announce that the U.S. is, by far, number one in testing — number one in the world in testing — and that the mortality rate is the lowest, or just about the lowest of any nation anywhere in the world. And we’re safely reopening our country, and very importantly, we’re safely reopening our schools. We want the schools to be open and going in the fall. And most of them, I think, are looking at it that way. It’s very important. We’re finding out that learning by computer is not as good as learning in the classroom or learning on the campus. And I think you’re finding that too. We want to learn in the classroom. So, our schools — we want them open in the fall." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump and President López Obrador of the United Mexican States in Signing of a Joint Declaration," whitehouse.gov, July 8, 2020 Twitter: "In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!" "I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!" "Economy and Jobs are growing MUCH faster than anyone (except me!) expected. Job growth is biggest in history. China Virus Mortality Rate is among the LOWEST of any country. Shaping up for a good third quarter, and a great next year! NASDAQ at new record high, 401k’s way up!!!!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 8, 2020 |
| July 9 | 3,106,931 / 135,822 | Twitter: "For the 1/100th time, the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, is that our TESTING is much bigger and better. We have tested 40,000,000 people. If we did 20,000,000 instead, Cases would be half, etc. NOT REPORTED!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 9, 2020 Remarks: "We have to open our schools. Open our schools. Stop this nonsense. We open our schools. Germany, Norway, so many countries right now, they’re open. The schools are open and they’re doing just fine, and they’re opening in the fall. So we have to get our schools open. Denmark, Sweden. We have to get our schools open and stop this political nonsense. And it’s only political nonsense; it’s politics. They don’t want to open because they think it will help them on November 3rd. I think it’s going to hurt them on November 3rd. Open your schools." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump at Signing of an Executive Order on the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative," whitehouse.gov, July 9, 2020 Fox News interview: "Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes, like, you don't have to ban them coming in from very infected China. I did it anyway, and we saved hundreds of thousands of lives... We do testing like nobody's ever done testing. And when we test, the more you test, the more cases you find... So, we have cases all over the place. Most of those cases immediately get better. They get -- people -- they're young people. They have sniffles, and two days later, they are fine. And they are not sick to start off with. They are asymptomatic." On masks: "I think it's fine to wear a mask, if it makes you feel comfortable. I think, under certain conditions, like when you are going into a hospital... I don't think you need one you're tested all the time, everybody around you is tested, you're quite a distance. You talk about social distancing. You're away." Source: Fox News, "Trump on Violence in Liberal Cities, 'Brainwashed' Joe Biden, Response to COVID Crisis, Supreme Court Rulings," foxnews.com, July 9, 2020 |
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| July 10 | 3,173,212 / 136,671 | Remarks: "As you know, in the United States, at least before the COVID came to us — the flu, the virus, the China virus, whatever you’d like to call it; it’s got many different names — but before it hit, we were doing really well, and we’re still doing very well, but now we’re getting back on track... Under my administration, drug overdose deaths fell for the first time in nearly 30 years. And they fell fairly substantially. Unfortunately, the shutdowns caused by the China virus have led to a recent rise in overdose deaths, still below the level that they were at. But nevertheless, it went up a little bit. This is one of the reasons that we’re working to safely and responsibly reopen our country, reopen our schools, get our country going again, a hundred percent." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump in Briefing on SOUTHCOM Enhanced Counternarcotics Operations," whitehouse.gov, July 10, 2020 Twitter: "Now that we have witnessed it on a large scale basis, and firsthand, Virtual Learning has proven to be TERRIBLE compared to In School, or On Campus, Learning. Not even close! Schools must be open in the Fall. If not open, why would the Federal Government give Funding? It won’t!!!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 10, 2020 |
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| July 11 | 3,236,130 / 137,402 | Remarks: "Well, I’ll probably have a mask, if you must know. I mean, I’ll probably have a mask. I think when you’re in a hospital, especially in that particular setting, where you’re talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask. I’ve never been against masks, but I do believe they have a time and a place." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure," whitehouse.gov, July 11, 2020 |
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| July 12 | 3,296,599 / 137,782 | ||
| July 13 | 3,355,457 / 138,247 | Remarks: "Well, you know that we have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere. If you know, Biden and Obama stopped their testing; they just stopped it. You probably know that. I’m sure you don’t want to report it. But they stopped testing. Right in the middle, they just went, 'No more testing,' and on a much lesser problem than the problem that we have, obviously with respect to — this is the worst thing that’s happened since probably 1917. This is a very bad — all over the world. It’s 188 countries right now... [W]e test more than anybody, by far. And when you test, you create cases. So we’ve created cases... If you tested China or Russia or any of the larger countries, if you just tested India, as an example, the way we test, you’d see numbers that would be very surprising. Brazil, too. You know, Brazil is going through a big problem, but they don’t do testing like we do. So we do the testing, and by doing the testing, we have tremendous numbers of cases. If we didn’t do the — as an example, we’ve done 45 million tests. If we did half that number, you’d have half the cases, probably — around that number. If we did another half of that, you’d have half the numbers. Everyone would be saying, 'Oh, we’re doing so well on cases.'" Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump in a Roundtable with Stakeholders Positively Impacted by Law Enforcement," whitehouse.gov, July 13, 2020 |
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| July 14 | 3,416428 / 139,153 | Press conference: "And make no mistake: We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could’ve stopped it. They should’ve stopped it. It would’ve been very easy to do at the source when it happened... We’re unleashing our nation’s scientific genius to kill the virus." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump in Press Conference," whitehouse.gov, July 14, 2020 Interview with CBS News: "It is a balancing act, but we have to open our schools. We have learned one thing very strongly. Young people are in great shape when it comes to the coronavirus or whatever you want to call it. Young people are very, very, very much in good shape. And without question, they should open their schools, keep ’em safe, practice distancing, wash your hands." Reporter Q: And how will you hold the Chinese government accountable for COVID-19? "You'll see. You'll see. It's not for you, it's for me." Reporter Q: But you will hold them accountable? "You'll see… You'll be watching. You'll be watching." Source: CBS News, "Transcript: Trump on masks, reopening schools, race and pardoning Roger Stone,” cbsnews.com, July 15, 2020 |
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| July 15 | 3,483,832 / 140,155 | Interview: "You know, it has virtually no impact on children. They're just stronger than we are that's all. Their immune system or whatever it may be. But we want the schools open. The mothers and the fathers and the kids, they want the school open. You know, there's danger in not opening, too." Source: Richard Elliot, "President Trump Talks 1-on-1 with Channel 2 about rRopening plan, Georgia Schools," wsbtv.com, July 15, 2020 Twitter: "Great News on Vaccines!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 15, 2020 Remarks: Reporter Q: Mr. President, why do you want coronavirus data going to HHS first instead of the CDC? Why make that change? "Didn’t change for me. I — look, they’re all on the same team. We’re all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci. I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci. And we’re all on the same team. We want to get rid of this mess that China sent us." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure,” whitehouse.gov, July 15, 2020 |
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| July 16 | 3,555,877 / 141,118 | Remarks: "My administration has also eliminated massive regulatory barriers in our battle against the China virus. These actions save countless lives, speeding up the production of equipment. That means ventilators like nobody has ever seen before. Probably the greatest source of manufacturing, the greatest achievements since World War Two. We’re now making ventilators for countries all over the world." Source: Donald Trump, "Remarks by President Trump on Rolling Back Regulations to Help All Americans,” whitehouse.gov, July 16, 2020 |
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| July 17 | 3,630,587 / 142,064 | Telephone rally: "We have a COVID problem, COVID-19 problem. As you know, I call it the China virus. It shouldn't have happened but it did. They could have stopped it... Under my administration, China will also be held fully accountable for its lies and deceit having to do with the -- with the virus that they allowed to come in. They could have stopped it. We've marshaled every power at America's disposal to treat the virus. By the way, we've done a great job, gotten very little credit for it. They've given credit to other people… who, frankly, had much less to do with it than we did. They've given credit to governors, and in some cases, they've done a great job, and in other cases, they didn’t." Source: Factbase, "Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Virtual Wisconsin Tele-Rally - July 17, 2020," factba.se, July 17, 2020 Twitter: "In addition to nearly $8 billion that Treasury provided tribal communities, @HUDgov is releasing an additional $25 million in #CARESAct funding today to respond to the CoronaVirus with improved housing, indoor air quality, and food pantry support." Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 17, 2020 |
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| July 18 | 3,698,161 / 142,877 | Telephone rally: "A lot of areas of our country now are in great shape and we are doing the best testing anywhere in the world, by far the best. We're up to almost 50 million tests. Nobody thought that was possible... China had the worst year they've had in 67 years prior to the Chinese virus coming in, prior to the pandemic, prior to whatever you want -- you have many names you can call it. You can call it lots of different names but it's all the same thing. They should have stopped it. They should have stopped it at their borders and they didn't. They chose not to I guess because they largely stopped it going into China, but not going to Europe, the U.S., and the rest of the world. So we're going to hold them accountable for that… We expect to have 100 million doses of vaccine available. And certainly, before the end of the year, but we think we're going to have therapeutically or through vaccine, something announced long before even that." Source: Factbase, "Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Virtual Michigan Tele-Rally - July 18, 2020," factba.se, July 18, 2020 Telephone rally: "COVID or COVID-19, there’s plenty of different names for it. You can call it a lot of different things, the China virus, call it whatever you want. But it should have been stopped, should have never been allowed to come here. Should have never been allowed to come into our country. They [China] could have stopped it and they didn’t. It went all over the world, 188 countries are suffering and still suffering, and some very greatly but we have that under control." Source: Factbase, “Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Virtual Arizona Tele-Rally – July 18, 2020," factba.se, July 18, 2020 |
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| July 19 | 3,761,362 / 143,289 | Fox News interview with Chris Wallace: "I’ll be right eventually. I will be right eventually. You know I said, ‘It’s going to disappear.’ I’ll say it again… It’s going to disappear and I’ll be right… Because I’ve been right probably more than anybody else." Chris Wallace: "will you consider a national mandate that people need to wear masks?" No, I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that. No, and I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask everything disappears. Hey, Dr. Fauci said don’t wear a mask. Our Surgeon General — terrific guy — said don’t wear a mask. Everybody who is saying don’t wear a mask — all of sudden everybody’s got to wear a mask, and as you know masks cause problems, too. With that being said, I’m a believer in masks. I think masks are good. But I leave it up to the governors." Source: Fox News, “Transcript: ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview with President Trump," foxnews.com, July 19, 2020 Telephone rally: "We have therapies that are are really coming online and vaccines that are looking very good. So good that we expect to have 100 million doses of a vaccine available before the end of the year and it could be very significantly before the end of the year." Source: Factbase, “Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Virtual North Carolina Tele-Rally – July 19, 2020,” factba.se, July 19, 2020 |
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| July 20 | 3,819,139 / 143,834 | Remarks: "It came from China. It should have never been allowed to get out. They could have stopped it. They could have stopped it easily. They chose not to. And we’ll have further reports on that. But it came from China. They could have stopped it, but they didn’t. They stopped it from going into China, but they didn’t stop it from going to the rest of the world. It didn’t stop it from going to Europe, to us. They should have stopped it. They could have stopped it. They weren’t transparent at all; they were the opposite. It’s not good." On resuming coronavirus public briefings: "Well, we had very successful briefings. I was doing them, and we had a lot of people watching — record numbers watching. In the history of cable television — television, there’s never been anything like it… But we’ve have had this big flare-up in Florida, Texas, a couple of other places… And let’s say that ended six weeks ago, and we’ll start them again. And I think it’s a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccines, with the therapeutics, and, generally speaking, where we are." Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump on Phase Four Negotiations," whitehouse.gov, July 20, 2020 Twitter: "We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 20, 2020 |
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| July 21 | 3,882,167 / 144,978 | President Trump resumed coronavirus press briefings last held April 28 | Press conference: Reporter Q: You’ve been saying for months the virus would simply disappear, and now you’re saying that it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. If it does keep getting worse, if Americans keep dying, are you responsible for them? "Well, the virus will disappear. It will disappear. I think that — I always like to say, as — you know, either way, when you look at it, the governors are working with me. I’m working with the governors. We’re working hand in hand. I think we’re all responsible. I view it as a team. Very good relationships with the governors. Very, very good relationships. I could say I’m fully responsible. But, you know, one day, we had a virus come in, and I closed the borders, did a lot of things that were very good." On wearing masks: "I have no problem with the masks. I view it this way: Anything that potentially can help — and that certainly can potentially help — is a good thing. I have no problem. I carry it. I wear it. You saw me wearing it a number of times, and I’ll continue." Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, July 21, 2020 Twitter: "Tremendous progress being made on Vaccines and Therapeutics!!!" "You will never hear this on the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well - and we have done things that few other countries could have done!" Source: Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 21, 2020 |
| July 22 | 3,952,273 / 146,183 | Press conference: "I would like to see the schools open 100 percent. And we’ll do it safely; we’ll do it carefully. But when you look at the statistics I just read, having to do with children and — and safety, they’re very impressive. They have very strong immune systems… Now, they don’t catch it easily; they don’t bring it home easily. And if they do catch it, they get better fast. We’re looking at that fact. That is a factor, and we’re looking at that very strongly... Our strategy is to shelter the highest-risk Americans, while allowing younger and healthier citizens to return to work or school while being careful and very vigilant. Wear a mask, socially distance, and repeatedly wash your hands. Practice very, very good sanitary means. You have to do this. You have to just — you have to look at it differently." Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, July 22, 2020 |
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| July 23 | 4,024,492 / 147,349 | Press conference: "We’ve had a tremendous week uniting the country in our fight against the China virus. I have reminded people of the importance of masks when you can’t socially distance, in particular. A strong message has been sent out to young people to stop going to crowded bars and other crowded places." On the risk to children: "Fortunately, the data shows that children are lower risk from the China virus, very substantially. When children do contact the virus, they often have only very mild symptoms or none at all, and medical complications are exceedingly rare. Those that do face complications often have underlying medical conditions. Ninety-nine percent of all China virus hospitalizations are adults. And 99.96 percent of all fatalities are adults. That means that children are a tiny percentage — less than 1 percent, and even a small percentage of 1 percent... Again, the children obviously have a very strong immune system, maybe even as strong as yours. They seem to be able to fight it off and not have a problem. So, it’s pretty amazing actually. Great, great credit." Source: Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, July 23, 2020 Interview with Sean Hannity: "Well, you know, at the beginning, many people, many very respected people, I won’t mention names, but many respected people were saying don’t wear a mask, that they’re bad. You touch your face too much, and you get your hands near your eyes and your nose and they are bad. And then all of a sudden, it was a big thing to get masks because I’m all for it. Look, whatever is going to help, if it was a five percent chance, a two percent chance, wear it." Source: Factbase, “Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump Live Via Telephone – July 23, 2020,” fact.se, July 23, 2020 |
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| A. Date | B. # US Cases / Deaths | C. Event | D. Donald Trump |
Sources:
- The number of cases by day in the United States is taken from the CDC website page titled “Cases in the U.S.” available at cdc.gov. The case numbers included here reflect the numbers presented by the CDC for a given day when added to this chart. The CDC does not appear to provide the number of US COVID-19 deaths by day.
- The source for the number of US coronavirus deaths per day shown in this chart is Worldometer, “United States,” worldometers.info (accessed Apr. 29, 2020 for historical data then daily going forward).
Editor’s Note:
A death in Washington state on Feb. 29, 2020 was considered to be the first coronavirus death on US soil until evidence was announced on Apr. 21, 2020 indicating that someone died from coronavirus on Feb. 6 in California.