President Donald Trump has said a sobering warning by Dr. Anthony Fauci, his top infectious diseases expert, about lifting pandemic restrictions too soon was unacceptable.
The president accused Dr. Fauci of wanting “to play all sides of the equation” in his testimony to lawmakers on May 12.
He said he was especially dissatisfied with Dr. Fauci’s caution around reopening schools too quickly.
Nearly 1.4 million people have been infected with Covid-19 in the US. Another 84,000 people have been killed by the new coronavirus, while ravaging the economy.
Speaking on May 13 at the White House, President Trump took issue with Dr. Fauci’s comments to a Senate hearing a day earlier about the risks to children of reopening and his assessment that a vaccine was unlikely before classes could begin this autumn.
He said: “Look, he wants to play all sides of the equation.”
“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 president told reporters.
The president said “the only thing that would be acceptable” is giving older teachers and professors a few more weeks before they return.
“Because this is a disease that attacks age, and it attacks health,” he said.
“But with the young children, I mean, and students, it’s really – just take a look at the statistics. It’s pretty amazing,” he added.
President Trump is keen to get Americans back to work and has praised governors who are moving to do so while criticizing others for not acting aggressively enough.
The US is split over President Trump’s focus on protecting livelihoods, critics accuse him of gambling with lives to serve his own political interests ahead of November’s re-election bid.
His latest comments come amid reports of some young children being severely affected by an inflammatory syndrome that could be linked to the virus.
Speaking to lawmakers on May 12, Dr. Fauci, a White House task force coronavirus expert, warned that relaxing stay-at-home rules too quickly could bring more “suffering and death”.
The director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases emphasized the importance of not being “cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects” of the disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said: “We just have to see on a step-by-step basis as we get into the period of time with the fall, about reopening the schools, exactly where we will be in the dynamics of the outbreak.”
He also said the real US death toll is probably higher than the official figure.
On May 12, Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan said he was lifting that state’s stay-at-home measure, replacing it on May 15 with a “safer-at-home” order.
The Republican, who has been critical of President Trump, cited a two-week decline in severe cases and deaths that federal guidelines recommend.
President Donald Trump has confirmed the White House coronavirus task force will be winding down, with Vice-President Mike Pence suggesting it could be disbanded within weeks.
He said during a visit to a mask-manufacturing factory in Arizona: “We are bringing our country back.”
New confirmed infections per day in the US currently top 20,000, and daily deaths exceed 1,000.
However, US health officials warn the virus may spread as businesses begin to reopen.
Image source Wikipedia
The US currently has 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 70,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, which is tracking the pandemic.
During a visit to the plant in Phoenix after weeks holed up at the White House, President Trump told journalists: “Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job, but we’re now looking at a little bit of a different form, and that form is safety and opening. And we’ll have a different group probably set up for that.”
President Trump – who wore safety goggles but no face mask during his tour of the facility – was asked if it was “mission accomplished”, and he said: “No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when it’s over.”
Critics have accused the president of sacrificing Americans’ public health in his eagerness to reopen the economy ahead of his re-election battle in November.
Acknowledging a human cost to the plans, President Trump told reporters: “I’m not saying anything is perfect, and yes, will some people be affected? Yes.
“Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon.”
However, it will be up to individual states to determine how they reopen.
Some Democratic governors in badly hit states have been cautious, calling for more testing and other safeguards before easing lockdowns. Other states, many led by Republicans in the south and mid-west, have already begun lifting restrictions.
The White House coronavirus task force was set up on January 29. VP Mike Pence became its chairman four weeks later and its members include more than 20 experts and leading administration officials. The White House said the task force’s duty was to “lead the administration’s efforts to monitor, contain and mitigate the spread of the virus” and provide the public with information.
President Trump’s once-daily task force briefings became increasingly scarce after he was widely condemned by the medical community for pondering at the podium last month whether injecting disinfectant might kill the virus.
President Donald Trump has suggested he has seen evidence coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory.
Earlier the US national intelligence director’s office said it was still investigating how the virus began.
However, the office said it had determined Covid-19 “was not manmade or genetically modified”.
China has rejected the lab theory and criticized the US response to Covid-19.
Since emerging in China at the end of 2019, the new coronavirus has killed 230,000 people worldwide including 63,000 in the US.
The pandemic has seen at least 3.2 million people infected, a million of them Americans, since the virus spread from the city of Wuhan.
At the White House on April 30, President Trump was asked by a reporter: “Have 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?”
“Yes, I have. Yes, I have,” said President Trump, without specifying.
“And I think the World Health Organization [WHO] should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China.”
Asked later to clarify his comment, the president said: “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
President Trump also told reporters: “Whether they [China] made a mistake, or whether it started off as a mistake and then they made another one, or did somebody do something on purpose?
“I don’t understand how traffic, how people weren’t allowed into the rest of China, but they were allowed into the rest of the world. That’s a bad, that’s a hard question for them to answer.”
In a rare public statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees US spy agencies, said on April 30 it concurs with the “wide scientific consensus” regarding Covid-19’s natural origins.
The statement said: “The [intelligence community] 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.”
It was the first clear response from American intelligence debunking conspiracy theories – both from the US and China – that the virus is a bio-weapon.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was founded in the 1950s, houses China’s first Biosafety Level 4 laboratory.
Such labs handle the most dangerous pathogens for which there are few available vaccines or treatments, and one of the areas the Wuhan facility studies is coronaviruses from bats.
President Trump has recently been escalating his war of words with China over the pandemic after what officials within the president’s administration had described as a truce with Beijing.
On April 29, he suggested China wanted him to lose his re-election bid in November.
President Trump has formerly accused Chinese officials of covering up the virus early on and saying they could have stopped the disease from spreading.
He has similarly criticized the WHO and withdrawn US funding for the global body.
China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, has accused the Trump administration of trying to distract from its own problems tackling the crisis.
The US passed a grim milestone, with more than a million cases of Covid-19 recorded.
There are now 3,098,391 confirmed cases worldwide and 216,160 deaths, Johns Hopkins University says.
The House of Representatives has abandoned plans to return to Washington next week. Several states, including Georgia and Texas, have pressed ahead with plans to reopen amid the infection rise.
President Donald Trump was speaking earlier at a White House event about supporting small businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.
As he closed the event, President Trump expressed his pride at the work being done by his government and tried to compare the scale of the outbreak with the Spanish Flu pandemic.
He said: “We’re going through a period of time the likes of which we’ve never seen in this country before, certainly even if you go back into 1917 – it was the worst of all time but it was also not as bad here.
“It was very bad, it was very rough – it was a bad one. But it wasn’t quite like what we’re going through right now.”
However, the Spanish Flu pandemic happened in 1918, not 1917. It also had a far higher death toll than the coronavirus pandemic has had so far.
According to Johns Hopkins University tracking, more than 50 million people died of Spanish Flu worldwide while the current death toll from the coronavirus is about 216,000.
Some 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 pandemic, while some 58,000 are thought to have died with Covid-19.
In other developments, the organizers of the Academy Awards have announced that they will bend their own rules to let films only released on streaming platforms be eligible for nomination.
Under current rules, films have to be screened in a cinema in Los Angeles for at least seven days to qualify for awards.
On April 28, Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement that their commitment to theatre releases was “unchanged and unwavering” but said the pandemic has made the rule change necessary.
The Academy’s new policy is only temporary while most cinemas are closed because of coronavirus.
Many scheduled movie releases have been completely delayed by the pandemic.
New York, the epicenter of the US Covid-19 outbreak, will allow pharmacies to carry out tests for the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo says.
He said some 5,000 pharmacies would be able to carry out testing, with the aim to provide 40,000 per day.
As of April 25, the US has more than 938,000 confirmed cases. Almost a third of the 53,751 deaths happened in New York City alone.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump did not hold his daily briefing, saying it was not worth his “time or effort”.
Speaking on Twitter on April 25, the president blamed the media for asking “nothing but hostile questions”. Donald Trump was heavily criticized after suggesting at the previous White House news conference that injecting disinfectant could potentially be used as a treatment for the virus.
The president’s remarks have been condemned as dangerous by doctors and manufacturers, as disinfectants are hazardous substances and can be poisonous if ingested.
In NYC, calls to the hotline for exposure to certain household chemicals more than doubled in the 18 hours after President Trump’s remarks – 30 cases compared to 13 for the same time frame last year.
Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit
President Trump’s tweet appears to confirm reports that the conferences may be coming to an end because polls suggest they have not bolstered his popularity among voters.
On April 24, his briefing was unusually short – lasting just over 20 minutes – and he took no questions from the media.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on April 25 that antibody screenings would be expanded at four hospitals, beginning with frontline medical workers.
He also said independent pharmacies would be allowed to collect samples for diagnostic tests.
It is part of a drive to find out how widely the virus has spread across the state of 20 million people.
He said: “Twenty-one days of hell, and now we are back to where we were 21 days ago. Testing is what we are compulsively or obsessively focused on now.”
New York healthcare staff and essential workers – such as police officers, firefighters, bus drivers and shop assistants – would be able to get tests even if they did not have any symptoms of infection, he said.
According to Governor Cuomo, this was important not just for their own safety but also to protect the public.
American medical community has lambasted President Donald Trump for suggesting research into whether coronavirus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body.
The president also appeared to propose irradiating patients’ bodies with UV light, an idea dismissed by a doctor at the briefing.
Another of the president’s officials had moments earlier said sunlight and disinfectant were known to kill the infection.
Disinfectants are hazardous substances and can be poisonous if ingested.
Even external exposure can be dangerous to the skin, eyes and respiratory system.
During April 23 White House coronavirus task force briefing, an official presented the results of US government research that indicated coronavirus appeared to weaken more quickly when exposed to sunlight and heat.
The study also showed bleach could kill the virus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes and isopropyl alcohol could kill it even more quickly.
William Bryan, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, outlined the findings at the news conference.
While noting the research should be treated with caution, President Trump suggested further research in that area.
He said: “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light.”
“And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of 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. Sounds interesting,” he continued.
“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?
“So it’d be interesting to check that.”
Pointing to his head, President Trump went on: “I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what.”
The president turned to Dr. Birx and asked if she had ever heard of using “the heat and the light” to treat coronavirus.
“Not as a treatment,” she said.
“I mean, certainly, fever is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond. But I’ve not seen heat or light.”
“I think it’s a great thing to look at,” President Trump said.
However, doctors warned the president’s idea could have fatal results.
Pulmonologist Dr. Vin Gupta told NBC News: “This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous.
“It’s a common method that people utilise when they want to kill themselves.”
John Balmes, a pulmonologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, warned that even breathing fumes from bleach could cause severe health problems.
He told Bloomberg News: “Inhaling chlorine bleach would be absolutely the worst thing for the lungs. The airway and lungs are not made to be exposed to even an aerosol of disinfectant.
“Not even a low dilution of bleach or isopropyl alcohol is safe. It’s a totally ridiculous concept.”
President Trump has previously hyped a malaria medication, hydroxycloroquine, as a possible treatment for coronavirus, though he has stopped touting that drug recently.
This week a study of coronavirus patients in a US government-run hospital for military veterans found more deaths among those treated with hydroxychloroquine than those treated with standard care.
Applications of foreign nationals seeking permanent residence in the US will be suspended because of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump said.
A day after he announced the move in an ambiguous tweet, President Trump said the measure would protect American jobs.
It is not clear how effective it will be as most visa services have already been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Critics say President Trump is trying to distract attention away from his response to the virus. The US has nearly 45,000 deaths.
Democrats also accuse the Trump administration of using the pandemic to crack down on immigration. The issue has traditionally been a strong campaigning theme for President Trump, a Republican, but has taken a back seat during the crisis and in the lead-up to the November election.
At a White House coronavirus briefing, President Trump said the executive order with the decision was likely to be signed on April 22. The ban could be extended “much longer” depending on how the economy was doing, he said.
After vowing to suspend “all immigration” to the US on April 20, President Trump apparently changed his original plan after a backlash from some business leaders. It would reportedly impact immigrants given temporary working visas, like farm laborers and hi-tech employees.
More than 20 million Americans have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak, and President Trump said the government had a “solemn duty” to ensure they regain their jobs.
He said: “It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad.”
The president added that there could be some exemptions to the measure.
He also said: “We want to protect our US workers and I think as we move forward we will become more and more protective of them.”
President Trump’s order could spark legal challenges.
The US has the highest number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world – more than 820,000 – according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the disease globally.
Green cards give immigrants legal permanent residence in the US and the opportunity to apply for American citizenship.
In a typical year, nearly one million green cards are issued in the US. The majority – roughly 70% – go to those with relatives living in the US, according to a 2018 report from the US Senate. For employment-based green cards, a common form of the residency status, roughly 80% are issued to those already in the country, shifting from a temporary visa to permanent residence.
Harvard University has pushed back against President Donald Trump after he demanded it pay back $8.6 million in coronavirus relief aid.
President Trump said he was unhappy that the ultra-wealthy Ivy League college had received stimulus money.
However, Harvard University said the funds would help students facing “urgent financial needs” because of the pandemic.
Harvard is rated the world’s wealthiest university with an endowment fund valued at $40 billion.
At April 21 coronavirus briefing, President Trump told a journalist: “I want Harvard to pay that money back, OK? If they won’t do that, we won’t do something else.
“They have to pay it back, I don’t like it. This is meant for workers, this isn’t meant for one of the richest institutions, not only, far beyond schools in the world. They got to pay it back.”
In a statement that followed, Harvard acknowledged receiving its $8.6 million through the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that President Trump signed last month.
However, Harvard did not say it would pay the money back.
The university tweeted: “Harvard has committed that 100% of these emergency higher education funds will be used to provide direct assistance to students facing urgent financial needs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Harvard said it had already provided financial assistance to students with travel, living expenses and online education amid the pandemic.
However, it disputed President Trump’s suggestion that it had received aid through the Payment Protection Program (PPP), a fund intended as a lifeline for businesses struggling amid the pandemic.
The university said it had instead benefited from the stimulus bill’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which disburses money based on an institution’s overall number of students and how many lower-income students are enrolled.
The CARES Act reserved $12.5 billion in federal aid to about 5,000 colleges and universities.
Harvard was not the only elite university to receive a windfall under the stimulus. Princeton, which has a $26 billion endowment, is getting $2.4 million, while Yale – endowment $30 billion – is receiving $6.9 million.
On April 21, the US Senate approved another $330 billion of emergency relief funds to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic after the original aid package of $350 billion ran out of money last week.
The PPP was designed to help so-called mom-and-pop stores keep staff on the payroll during the coronavirus emergency that has left 22 million American workers claiming unemployment benefits.
However, instead of going towards such small businesses, nearly $250 billion of the initial stimulus went to publicly traded companies with market values topping $100 million, according to analysis from Morgan Stanley, an investment bank.
President Donald Trump has given governors guidance on reopening state economies in the coming months as the new coronavirus continues to spread across the US.
“Opening up America Again” guidelines outline three phases for states to gradually ease their lockdowns.
President Trump promised governors they would be handling the process themselves, with help from the federal government.
However, there has been a mixed reception to the plans, with a leading Democrat calling them vague and inconsistent.
The US currently has 699,044 confirmed cases and 36,849 deaths due to the virus, and President Trump has suggested some states could reopen this month.
In his daily briefing on April 16, the president declared “the next front in our war – opening up America again”.
He said: “America wants to be open and Americans want to be open. A national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution.”
The president said that a prolonged lockdown risked inflicting a serious toll on public health. He warned of a “sharp rise” in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, heart disease, and other “physical and mental” problems.
He told reporters that healthy citizens would be able to return to work “as conditions allow”. He said Americans would continue to be called upon to maintain social distancing measures and to stay home if they are unwell.
President Trump said that reopening the US economy would be done “one careful step at a time” but he called on state governors to move “very, very quickly, depending on what they want to do”.
Shortly afterwards, leading Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, called the new guidelines “vague and inconsistent”.
Nancy Pelosi said the document did “nothing to make up for the president’s failure to listen to the scientists and produce and distribute national rapid testing”.
The Trump administration’s 18-page guidance document details three phases to reopen state economies, with each phase lasting, at minimum, 14 days.
The guidelines include some recommendations across all three phases including good personal hygiene and employers developing policies to ensure social distancing, testing and contact tracing.
Phase one includes much of the current lockdown measures such as avoiding non-essential travel and not gathering in groups. But it says large venues such as restaurants, places of worship and sports venues “can operate under strict physical distancing protocols”.
If there is no evidence of a resurgence of the coronavirus, phase two allows non-essential travel to resume. The guidance says schools can reopen and bars can operate “with diminished standing-room occupancy”.
Under phase three, states which are still seeing a downward trend of symptoms and cases can allow “public interactions” with physical distancing and the unrestricted staffing of worksites. Visits to care homes and hospitals can resume and bars can increase their standing room capacity.
According to the document, some regions could begin returning to normal after a month-long evaluation period, at the earliest.
In places where there are more infections or where rates begin to rise, it could take longer.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the co-ordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, told at the April 16 briefing that as states worked through the three phases, they could allow for more and more employees to return to work in increments.
Phase three would be the “new normal”, she said, and would still include suggestions that vulnerable people should avoid crowded spaces.
President Donald Trump has been accused by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of “spoiling for a fight”, as the president lashed out at “Democrat Governors”.
Several states, including New York, have begun cautious talks on reopening, but President Trump has claimed “total” power to lift virus lockdowns.
On April 14, Andrew Cuomo refuted the claim as President Trump took to Twitter to criticize the governor.
The US is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with 554,684 cases and 23,608 deaths.
New York has the most cases, but has seen signs of improvement, leading Governor Cuomo and regional governors to discuss plans for eventual relaxation of restrictions.
Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit
Governor Cuomo criticized President Trump at his daily press briefing, telling reporters that this was the governors’ prerogative, not the president’s. Andrew Cuomo would “not engage” in a fight with President Trump, he claimed, but added he would have “no choice” if the president the threatened the welfare of New Yorkers.
President Trump drew rebuke after claiming on April 13 that he had the ultimate authority to lift lockdown orders, contradicting governors and legal experts.
On April 14, the president took the row to Twitter criticizing Andrew Cuomo and issuing an oblique snipe at other governors.
President Trump tweeted: “Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies.
“A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain.”
The movie tells the story of a ship’s revolt in which mutineers meet with unhappy ends, with President Trump appearing to compare himself to the captain.
He aimed particular fire at Andrew Cuomo, who he said was calling “daily, even hourly, begging for everything,” like hospitals, beds, ventilators for his state. New York remains the US state hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, reporting 778 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Andrew Cuomo told CNN on April 14: “I put my hand out in total partnership and cooperation with the president.”
The comments follow President Trump’s assertion on April 13 that “the president of the United States calls the shots,” during a combative press conference in which he feuded with reporters.
However, the US Constitution says the states maintain public order and safety.
The Trump administration has signaled May 1st as a potential date for easing the restrictions.
The current White House recommendations for Americans to avoid restaurants and non-essential travel and keep in-person gatherings to no more than 10 people expire on April 30.
Andrew Cuomo described President Trump’s position as a “shift” for the president, who had left the shuttering of states to governors.
Figures from Johns Hopkins University show 2,108 people died in the past 24 hours in the US while there are now more than half a million confirmed infections.
The US has become the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths in a single day.
It could soon surpass Italy as the country with the most coronavirus deaths worldwide.
However, experts on the White House Covid-19 task force say the outbreak is starting to level off across the US.
Dr. Deborah Birx said there were good signs the outbreak was stabilizing, but cautioned: “As encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak.”
President Donald Trump also said he expects the US to see a lower death toll than the initial predictions of 100,000 fatalities, adding: “We’re seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives.”
The US now has at least 18,693 deaths and 500,399 confirmed cases. About half of the deaths were recorded in the New York area.
Italy has reported 18,849 deaths while globally more than 102,000 people have died with the virus.
Researchers had predicted the US death toll would hit its peak on April 10 and then gradually start to decline, falling to around 970 people a day by May 1 – the day members of the Trump administration have floated as a possible date to start reopening the economy.
President Trump said at a Good Friday briefing at the White House: “I want to get it open as soon as possible.
“I would say without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
However, no action would be taken until the government knew the “country [was] going to be healthy” the president said.
“We don’t want to go back and start doing it over again.”
President Donald Trump has warned Americans to prepare for the “toughest week” of the coronavirus pandemic yet, predicting a surge in deaths.
At his daily briefing, the president said “there will be death” in a grim assessment of the days ahead.
Donald Trump sought to reassure the worst-hit states, promising medical supplies and military personnel to combat the virus.
However, in contrast to his warning, President Trump suggested easing social-distancing guidelines for Easter.
At a news conference at the White House on April 4, he said: “We have to open our country again.
“We don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months.”
President Trump’s calls to relax restrictions on life came on the day confirmed coronavirus infections in the US surpassed 300,000, the highest number in the world.
As of April 4, there were almost 8,500 deaths from Covid-19 in the US, with most in New York state – the epicenter of the outbreak.
On the same day, New York state recorded 630 more Covid-19 deaths, another daily record that takes its toll to 3,565. New York state now has almost as many cases – over 113,000 – as the whole of Italy.
The president gave a candid assessment of what lies ahead for the US in the coming weeks.
He said: “This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done but there will be death.”
To support states in their fight against Covid-19, President Trump said his administration would be deploying a “tremendous amount of military, thousands of soldiers, medical workers, professionals”.
The military personnel will “soon” be advised of their assignments, the president said, adding that “1,000 military personnel” were being deployed to New York City.
President Trump also addressed his use of the Defense Production Act, a Korean-War-era law which gives him powers to control the production and supply of US-made medical products.
He said he was “very disappointed” with 3M, a US company that makes masks, saying it “should be taking care of our country” instead of selling to others.
However, the president rejected accusations that the US had committed an act of “modern piracy” by redirecting 200,000 Germany-bound masks for its own use.
On the question of easing social-distancing restrictions, President Trump reiterated a familiar theme.
President Trump has said: “The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
Elsewhere in the world, there has been cause for optimism as the number of new infections and deaths from coronavirus has started to gradually diminish.
Globally, more than 60,000 people have died and more than 1.1 million have been infected, Johns Hopkins University says.
President Donald Trump has said he will not wear a face mask despite new medical guidelines advising Americans to do so.
He said he could not see himself greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens” in the Oval Office while wearing one.
President Trump stressed that the guidance released on April 3 was “voluntary”.
“You do not have to do it,” he said.
“I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”
The guidelines issued by the CDC came as the US reported more than 1,100 deaths in a single day – the highest total for a 24-hour period anywhere in the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has so far confirmed 278,458 cases of Covid-19 and more than 7,000 deaths.
New York state remains the worst affected area, with nearly 3,000 deaths, and state governor Andrew Cuomo has appealed for help from other parts of the US.
Until now, US health authorities had said that only the sick, or those caring for patients of coronavirus, should wear masks, but newer studies suggest that covering up one’s face is important to prevent inadvertent transmission.
President Trump said on April 2: “From recent studies we know that the transmission from individuals without symptoms is playing a more significant role in the spread of the virus than previously understood.”
However, the president told reporters after announcing the CDC’s new guidance: “I just don’t want to do it myself.”
“Sitting in the Oval Office… I somehow don’t see it for myself.”
Americans are now advised to use clean cloth or fabric to cover their faces whilst in public. Officials have stressed that medical masks remain in short supply, and should be left for healthcare workers.
The CDC guidance comes as the number of cases globally climbs past one million.
President Trump announced the guidance at the White House daily coronavirus briefing, but repeatedly emphasized that the advisory was “voluntary”.
US
infectious disease chief Anthony Fauci said that “as sobering a number as
that [100,000] is, we should be prepared for it. Is it going to be that much? I
hope not and the more we push on mitigation the less likely it would be that
number.
“But being realistic, we need to
prepare ourselves… it will be difficult – no one is denying we are going
through a very difficult time right now.”
President Donald Trump is expected to help businesses in America by allowing
them to delay payments on certain tariffs.
The
US imposes tariffs – fees for importing certain products from overseas – on a
raft of goods, including steel from China.
However,
the president is expected to waive payment of these fees for 90 days to help
improve US companies’ cashflows as they struggle with lockdowns.
The
90-day breathing space will apply to specific goods from “most-favored
nations”, although these are not expected to include imports from China or Europe.
Around
400 chief executives of small, medium, and large companies in the US urged
President Trump in a letter on March 31 to delay the collection of these fees
for up to 180 days.
The cash would normally be paid direct to the US government.
The US last week became the country with the most reported cases, ahead of
Italy and China.
Speaking during the latest Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the
White House on March 29, President Trump said that measures such as social
distancing were “the way you win”, adding that the US “will be
well on our way to recovery” by June.
Suggesting that the “peak” of death rates in the US was likely to
hit in two weeks, President Trump said that “nothing would be worse than
declaring victory before victory is won – that would be the greatest loss of
all”.
Analysts suggest that when President Trump referred to a peak in the “death rate”, he probably meant the total number of recorded infections.
President Trump tweeted that instead of quarantine, a “strong travel
advisory” would be issued to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by the
CDC.
The CDC then published a statement urging residents of those three states to
“refrain” from all non-essential domestic travel for 14 days.
It said the advisory did not apply to “critical infrastructure” service
providers, including healthcare professionals and food suppliers.
Speaking to reporters on March 28
about the situation in New York, President Trump said: “We’d like to see [it] quarantined because it’s a hotspot… I’m
thinking about that.”
He said it would be aimed at slowing
the spread of the virus to other parts of the US.
He said: “They’re having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers are
going down. We don’t want that.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo responded by
saying that quarantining the state of New York would be
“preposterous” and “anti-American”.
“If you said we were geographically restricted from
leaving, that would be a lockdown.”
The governor said New York had already implemented “quarantine”
measures, such as banning major gatherings and ordering people to remain at
home, but that he would oppose any “lockdown” efforts.
Andrew Cuomo told CNN: “Then we
would be Wuhan, China, and that wouldn’t make any sense.”
He added that this would cause the stock market to crash in a way that would
make it impossible for the US economy to “recover for months, if not
years”.
“You would paralyze the financial
sector,” he said.
Governor Cuomo added later: “I
don’t know how that can be legally enforceable. And from a medical point of
view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing.
“But I can tell you, I don’t even
like the sound of it.”
He also said he would sue nearby Rhode Island if the authorities there
continued targeting New Yorkers and threatening to punish them for failing to quarantine.
On March 27, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo deployed National Guard
troops to stop cars with a New York license plate, to remind them of their
state’s advice that they quarantine.
Soldiers are going door-to-door in coastal vacation communities to ask if any residents have recently visited New York City.
President Trump has signed into law the
largest-ever US financial stimulus package, worth $2 trillion, as the country
grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
The House of Representatives passed
the cross-party bill two days after the Senate debated its provisions.
On March 25, the number of Americans
filing for unemployment surged to a record high of 3.3 million people.
As of March 27, the US has more
confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country, with more than 100,000
positive tests.
No Democratic lawmakers were invited
to the historic signing ceremony, which was held at the White House, though the
president thanked both parties “for coming together, setting aside their
differences and putting America first”.
President Trump said the package was
“twice as large” as any prior relief bill.
He said: “This will deliver urgently needed relief to our nation’s families,
workers and businesses.”
Just before signing the act into
law, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), which gives the
president the power to force private industries to create items required for
national defense.
President Trump said the order will
compel General Motors (GM) to manufacture much-needed medical ventilators for
the federal government.
Earlier in the day, President Trump
tweeted that GM had promised to “give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, very
quickly “.
“Now they are saying it will only be 6,000, in late
April, and they want top dollar,”
he said, threatening to invoke the DPA.
During the bill signing, President Trump
said that “tremendous [medical] supplies” would be coming soon,
adding: “We’ve had great results on
just about everything we’re talking about.”
On March 27, New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo announced eight temporary hospitals to meet an expected surge in
cases.
He said 519 people had died in the
state – the worst-hit in the US – and there were 44,635 confirmed cases.
Democrats and Republicans in the
Democratic-led House approved the stimulus package by voice vote on March 27
following a three-hour debate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “Our nation faces an economic and
health emergency of historic proportions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the worst
pandemic in over 100 years.”
Members of the House had been ready
to conduct the vote at their homes but were forced to return to Washington at
the last minute after a Republican representative from Kentucky demanded a
quorum of half the chamber be present.
Thomas Massie – who objected to the
stimulus package saying it contained too much spending – also sought to delay
proceedings by demanding a formal recorded vote, as opposed to a voice vote,
but was overruled.
President Trump vented his fury at
Thomas Massie on Twitter, calling him a “third-rate grandstander” and
demanding he be thrown out of the Republican party.
The new law enables direct payments to individuals and companies whose
livelihoods and businesses have been affected by the pandemic.
It seeks to deliver $1,200 to every American earning less than $75,000 per
year and $500 to the parents of every child.
The law also gives money directly to state governments, and bolsters the
unemployment benefits program.
Under the law, jobless benefits will be extended to those not normally
covered, such as freelancers and workers in the gig economy.
It also offers loans and tax breaks to companies that face going out of
business, as one in every four Americans is ordered to remain at home and only
go outside for essential needs.
Officials across the US have closed restaurants, bars, cinemas, hotels and
gyms in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
Auto companies have halted production and air travel has fallen
dramatically. According to economists, a fifth of the US workforce is on some
form of lockdown.
With almost 1,500 virus-related fatalities, the US death toll remains lower than those in Italy and China. But there are virus hotspots in New York, New Orleans and Detroit.
Ben McAdams and Mario Diaz-Balart became the first members of Congress to
test positive for the Covid-19.
The office of Congressman Ben
McAdams, a Utah Democrat, said on March 18 that he had tested positive for the
virus.
The representative said he developed
“mild cold-like symptoms” after returning from Washington DC on March
14.
Ben McAdams said he immediately
self-isolated at home, but “my symptoms got worse and I developed a fever,
a dry cough and labored breathing”.
According to the statement, his
doctor referred him on March 17 for a Covid-19 test, which came back positive
on March 18.
Ben McAdams, 45, said he would remain in self-quarantine until he had
recovered.
Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, also announced on March 18 that he
had tested positive for coronavirus.
The 58-year-old tweeted from self-quarantine at his flat in Washington DC: “I’m feeling much better. However, it’s
important that everyone take this seriously.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has vowed the
US will achieve “total victory” over the coronavirus, describing himself
as a “wartime president”.
At a White House press conference, the president was asked by a reporter
whether he considered the country to be on a war footing in terms of fighting
the virus.
He said: “It’s a war.
“I view it as a, in a sense, a
wartime president.”
President Trump spoke as he revived a Korean War-era measure allowing the US
to ramp up production of vital medical supplies.
According to estimates, the US has more than 9,300 cases of Covid-19 and has
seen 150 deaths so far.
Globally there are some 220,000 confirmed cases and over 8,800 deaths.
President Trump has been holding daily briefings on the emergency this week
after being accused of playing down the outbreak in its early stages.
He said: “We must sacrifice
together, because we are all in this together, and we will come through
together. It’s the invisible enemy. That’s always the toughest enemy.
“But we are going to defeat the
invisible enemy. I think we are going to do it even faster than we thought, and
it’ll be a complete victory. It’ll be a total victory.”
President Trump announced he was signing the 1950 Defense Production Act,
which empowers the president to direct civilian businesses to help meet orders
for products necessary for national security.
However, the president said later on Twitter that he would only invoke the
measure “in a worst case scenario in the future”.
President Trump also described as an “absolute, total worst case
scenario” a warning by his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, that the
pandemic could send US unemployment rocketing to 20%.
He said two US Navy hospitals ships would be pressed into service to help
alleviate an expected shortage of sick beds.
The USNS Comfort is expected to be sent to New York Harbor, though defense
officials said it is currently undergoing maintenance in Virginia.
The other vessel, USNS Mercy, is being prepared to deploy to a location on
the West Coast.
During the press conference,
President Trump again rejected suggestions that his use of the term
“Chinese virus” to describe Covid-19 was racist.
The US-Canada border, the world’s
longest, was effectively closed, except for essential travel and commerce.
President Trump also announced a new
crackdown on immigrants or asylum seekers crossing the US-Mexico border.
The president said his administration would invoke a statute that allows people to be blocked in order to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.
The US coronavirus emergency could
last until the end of the summer or even longer, President Donald Trump told reporters
at the White House on March 16.
The US has so far had 4,100 cases of
the virus and 71 deaths.
The president said over the next 15
days, Americans should not gather in groups of more than 10 people and avoid
bars, restaurants, food courts and crowds.
Donald Trump said the US is facing
“an invisible enemy” that is “so contagious”.
According to a tally from Johns
Hopkins University, there have been more than 174,000 confirmed cases of
coronavirus globally and over 6,700 deaths.
Under the US coronavirus task
force’s new guidelines, President Trump urged all older Americans to stay home.
Work and schooling should be at home.
Discretionary travel, shopping trips
and social visits should be avoided.
Anyone in a household who tests
positive for the virus should stay at home along with everyone who lives there.
Asked how long the emergency will
last, President Trump said: “People
are talking about July, August, something like that, so it could be right in
that period of time where I say, it washes through.”
The president continued: “They think August, could be July,
could be longer than that.”
He said he was not considering a
national curfew or lockdown, though added:
“We may look at certain areas, certain hot spots as they call them.”
President Trump said he had not yet
decided to close the US-Canada border, but told reporters it was something the
administration was considering.
He also addressed issues of testing,
as the US has been criticized for lagging far behind smaller countries in
getting tests out to the states.
Officials said on March 16 that a
million tests were currently available and more would be coming this week.
“A lot of testing has been going on,” President Trump said, though he also noted that those
without symptoms should not get the test.
“Not everybody should run out and get the test, but
we’re able to handle tremendous numbers.”
Health officials also said they are
due to add 30 million masks to the US supply and are shipping out gear and
health workers to bolster local testing efforts.
Asked how he would score his
administration’s response to the crisis on a scale of one to 10, President
Trump said: “I’d rate it a 10. I
think we’ve done a great job.”
White House coronavirus response coordinator
Dr. Deborah Birx, who joined the president, issued an appeal directly to
millennials, asking them to limit social contact.
She said: “They are the core people that will stop this virus.
“We really want people to be separated.”
Dr. Birx also warned against
socializing even if people feel well.
She said: “We know that there is a large group of infected people who are
asymptomatic, who continue to spread the virus.”
VP Mike Pence, who is leading the
coronavirus taskforce, told reporters he had not been tested yet.
He said: “I’m in regular consultation with the White House physician and he said I’ve not been exposed to anyone for any period of time that has had the coronavirus and that my wife and I have had no symptoms.”
President Donald Trump has declared a national
emergency to help handle the growing outbreak of COVID-19.
The move allows the federal government to tap up to $50 billion in emergency
relief funds.
It loosens regulations on the provision of healthcare and could speed up
testing – the slow pace of which has been criticized widely.
There are 1,701 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US, and 41 deaths.
Several states have taken measures to stem the infections rate, including
banning large gatherings, sporting events and closing schools.
The new coronavirus originated in China last December, but Europe is now the
“epicenter” of the global pandemic, the head of the World Health
Organization (WHO) said on March 13, as several European countries reported
steep rises in infections and deaths.
Italy has recorded its highest daily toll yet – 250 over the past 24 hours,
taking the total to 1,266, with 17,660 infections overall.
The Trump administration has come
under recent scrutiny over its failure to provide Americans with widespread
coronavirus testing.
The decision on the state of
emergency was announced by President Trump in a live address from the White
House Rose Garden.
The “next eight weeks are
critical,” President Trump said.
What are the measures envisaged as part of the emergency
response?
The US Health Secretary Alex Azar
and health officials can waive certain laws and license requirements, giving
more flexibility to healthcare providers.
Hospitals have been asked to
activate their emergency preparedness plans.
Up to 500,000 additional coronavirus
tests will be available by early next week, though authorities are not
recommending tests without clear need; private labs and vaccine developers will
be able to provide five million coronavirus tests within the month, though
authorities are not recommending tests for those without symptoms.
Interest on all student loans is to
be waived until further notice as a measure to ease the burden for students as
universities and colleges across the country shut their doors.
Democrats in Congress and heavily-affected
states had been urging President Trump to issue the order, which will also
allow more people to qualify for government health insurance.
Urged again to explain why he hasn’t
taken a coronavirus test following reports that he has been in the company of
people who have tested positive recently, President Trump said he had no
symptoms and there was no need for a test. But he added that he was likely to
have one “fairly soon”, anyway.
President Trump’s travel ban on 26 European countries, which was met with
anger and confusion this week, will go into effect on March 13 at midnight EDT.
The 1988 Stafford Act gives the president alone the ability to direct the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to co-ordinate a national response
to “natural catastrophes” within the US.
There are currently more than 30 national emergencies in effect.
President Trump has declared several national emergencies in his presidency, including one last year to redirect military funds to build a southern border wall to prevent illegal immigration.
Joe Biden has strengthened his position as
front-runner in the Democratic race to take on President Donald Trump in
November’s White House election.
On March 10, he won Michigan, the biggest prize of primary voting, extending
his lead over main rival Senator Bernie Sanders.
Five other states – Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North
Dakota – voted on March 10.
The former vice-president also swept aside Bernie Sanders in Missouri,
Mississippi and Idaho.
The Vermont senator won North Dakota, with results from Washington state
still outstanding on March 11.
It is unclear if Bernie Sanders would fight on until the party convention in
July.
The Democrats’ next big election milestone is in a week’s time when 577
delegates are up for grabs.
To secure the nomination, a candidate needs the support of 1,991 delegates.
Before March 10 vote, Joe Biden had 648 to Bernie Sanders’ 563.
Joe Biden had lagged behind his Democratic rivals in early voting states,
but rebounded after big wins on Super Tuesday and endorsements from several
former nomination rivals.
His campaign looked all but lost at
the start of the primary season in February. The 77-year-old finished a poor
fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.
However, the turn came with South Carolina – where he won due to the support of the large African-American community – and on the Super Tuesday he won 10 out of 14 states at stake, establishing a sizeable lead over Bernie Sanders.
Thanking supporters from
Philadelphia on March 10, Joe Biden said Democrats, including supporters of
Bernie Sanders, could beat Donald Trump.
Bernie Sanders, 78, enjoys
widespread support among young voters, but has so far failed to turn that into
electoral success.
The Democratic Party has been involved in a lengthy internal debate aimed at
deciding which candidate has the best chance of denying President Trump a
second term in office this autumn.
Once a crowded field of more than two dozen, celebrated for its women and
candidates of color, the Democratic contest is now a race between two white
male septuagenarians.
Joe Biden, a moderate, and Bernie Sanders, a staunch left-winger, offer starkly different visions for America’s future.
Elizabeth Warren said she needed
some time to decide who to support.
Her departure may clear the path for
Bernie Sanders in particular – the sole progressive candidate left in the race.
Despite early momentum for her
campaign, Elizabeth Warren failed to convert enthusiasm into votes in the first
primary contests of 2020, not winning a single state.
With Elizabeth Warren’s departure, a Democratic race that began with a
record high of female candidates is now effectively left to two male
front-runners, who praised her and her campaign.
Asked how she made the decision to drop out, Elizabeth Warren said she
returned to the issues that anchored her campaign – the vast costs of student
loan debt, healthcare, and childcare that plague millions of Americans.
The former Harvard law professor was vaulted into the political arena more
than a decade ago as she pushed for tougher regulation of the financial sector
after the 2008 economic collapse.
In 2010, Elizabeth Warren helped the Obama White House set up the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, a Wall Street watchdog agency she championed.
Two years later, Elizabeth Warren rode that momentum to a seat in the Senate for Massachusetts.
In a remarkable rebound for his campaign, Joe
Biden has won nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House
candidate on Super Tuesday.
The former vice-president to Barack Obama overturned predictions to narrowly
take the key state of Texas from his main challenger, Bernie Sanders.
However, Bernie Sanders is projected to win California – the biggest prize
of the night – as well as three other states.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders lead the race to face Republican President
Donald Trump in November.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $500 million of his
own money on his campaign, but did not win a single state.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, once the frontrunner in the race, suffered a
humiliating defeat to Joe Biden in her home state of Massachusetts.
Super Tuesday awards more than 1,300 of the 1,991 delegates needed to clinch
the Democratic White House nomination in July.
As things stand, Joe Biden has 402 delegates and Bernie Sanders 314.
However, results from California, which has 415 delegates, could affect the
current standing.
Only last month, Joe Biden’s campaign was all but written off by some
observers after he finished a poor fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the
New Hampshire primary.
Joe Biden won Texas – the second biggest state with 228 delegates – along
with Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, North
Carolina and Virginia.
Maine, which has 24 delegates, is also yet to declare but partial results put
Joe Biden slightly ahead of Bernie Sanders.
Virginia and North Carolina are crucial because they are key swing states in
the 2020 election.
Exit polls across the board suggested Joe Biden attracted large majorities
of African-American voters, a crucial bloc for the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden, 77, also appears to have won among the type of suburban voters
who pollsters say have been turning away from the current president.
If Bernie Sanders, 78, does win California, as the Associated Press news
agency projects, he will pick up the lion’s share of the whopping 415 delegates
that the Golden State sends to the party convention.
The left-wing senator also won his home state of Vermont, along with
Colorado and Utah.
Bernie Sanders had been heavily favored to win Texas, but it was finally
claimed by Joe Biden.
In a victory speech, Bernie Sanders lambasted President Trump, but also took
a shot at Joe Biden.
He said: “We’re taking on the political
establishment.
“You cannot beat Trump with the
same-old, same-old kind of politics.”
The next primaries take place on March 0 in Michigan, Washington state, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri and North Dakota, with 352 delegates available.
One of the protesters, who shouted
at Juan Guaidó and threw a liquid at him, was wearing the uniform of the
state-owned airline Conviasa, which has been directly hit by US sanctions.
There were also scuffles between the
protesters and supporters of Juan Guaidó, who had gone to the airport to
welcome him.
Lawmakers loyal to Juan Guaidó had
to walk to the airport after the bus they were traveling in was stopped by
police.
Journalists reported being attacked
and having their kit stolen by those who had turned out to boo Juan Guaidó.
His office later said that a
relative who was travelling with him had been held by airport officials, and
had not been seen since.
Meanwhile, without directly naming Juan Guaidó, President Maduro told his
supporters to focus on “defending Venezuela”.
He said at a ceremony that was broadcast on state television: “Let’s not get distracted by
stupidities, by dummies, by traitors to the homeland.”
Nicolas Maduro’s second-in-command Diosdado Cabello also denounced Juan
Guaidó’s three-week tour as a “tourism trip”, and said he did not
expect anything to change after his return.
“He is nothing,”
Diosdado Cabello added.
President Maduro and his officials have threatened Juan Guaidó in the past,
but these threats have, so far, not led to him being harmed or detained.
Despite this being the second time he defied a court-imposed travel ban,
Juan Guaidó was not arrested.
After landing, Juan Guaidó addressed a rally of about 500 people in Caracas,
where he called for renewed protests against the president.
During Juan Guaidó’s visit to the US, President Trump promised to “smash” Nicolas Maduro’s government.
At his annual State of the Union address, President
Donald Trump has hailed the “great American comeback”.
His speech to Congress exposed sharp divisions
at the top of US politics.
President Trump was speaking on the eve of his expected acquittal on
corruption charges in his impeachment trial.
At one point the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of
the president’s speech behind him.
Donald Trump delivered the nationally televised speech in the
Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, where he was impeached in
December.
His trial in the Senate culminates on February 5 but with Republicans in
charge there he is all but certain to be cleared and escape being thrown out of
office.
President Trump did not mention
impeachment at all in his speech although he did jab at Democrats.
Republican lawmakers chanted
“four more years” as Donald Trump prepared to speak, urging him on
for November’s White House election.
The State of the Union address is a
speech delivered by the president to Congress towards the beginning of each
calendar year in office.
The speech is usually used as a
chance to report on the condition of the nation, but also allows the president
to outline a legislative agenda and national priorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been
one of the president’s fiercest critics – she was the one who first launched
formal impeachment efforts last year. President Trump has frequently taunted
her as “Crazy Nancy”.
It was the first time the two had
come face-to-face since Nancy Pelosi stormed out of a White House meeting four
months ago.
Before President Trump began speaking
at the podium in the well of the House, he appeared to snub the outstretched
hand of Nancy Pelosi, America’s most powerful elected Democrat.
The House speaker, critics noticed,
skipped the traditional introduction welcoming the president as a
“distinct honor”.
When President Trump accused
Democrats of planning to force American taxpayers to provide unlimited free
healthcare to undocumented immigrants, Nancy Pelosi was observed twice
mouthing: “Not true.”
Nancy Pelosi stunned onlookers by
shredding a copy of the president’s remarks as he concluded.
She told reporters afterwards her
gesture was “the courteous thing to do, considering the
alternatives”.
Nancy Pelosi did rise to applaud the
president more than once, including when he promoted his pet project of
infrastructure investment, a possible area of bipartisan co-operation.
President Trump struck an upbeat
note in a speech lasting one hour and 18 minutes that contrasted sharply with
his lament of “American carnage” in his 2017 inaugural presidential
address.
In an implicit rebuke to his
predecessor Barack Obama, President Trump told his audience: “In just three short years, we have
shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing
of America’s destiny.
“We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable
just a short time ago, and we are never going back!”
President Trump repeatedly swiped at
Democrats, including left-wing candidates such as Bernie Sanders, who are vying
to challenge him for the presidency.
As is tradition, President Trump
invited several special guests, including Venezuelan opposition leader Juan
Guaidó, military veterans and the brother of a man killed by an undocumented
immigrant.
In a move certain to infuriate
liberal critics, President Trump announced he would award the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, to firebrand conservative
radio host Rush Limbaugh, who revealed this week he has lung cancer.
First Lady Melania Trump bestowed
the honor on an emotional Rush Limbaugh as the president spoke.
A protester was escorted from the
chamber while President Trump defended gun rights. It was Fred Guttenberg, the
father of Jaime Guttenberg, a student killed in a mass school shooting at
Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.
Fred Guttenberg was a guest of Nancy
Pelosi.
Each year after the State of the Union speech, a member of the main
opposition party is tasked with responding and this year it fell to Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The governor accused the president of failing to fix America’s problems.
She said: “Bullying people on
Twitter doesn’t fix bridges – it burns them.”
As they did last year, many female Democrats – including Nancy Pelosi – wore
white as tribute to the suffragettes who won the vote for US women a century
ago.
Several liberal Democratic lawmakers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York and Maxine Waters of California, boycotted President Trump’s address.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she would “not use my presence at
a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the
Constitution”.
Other left-wing Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, walked out
during President Trump’s speech.
As is traditional during the State of the Union, one member of the president’s
cabinet did not attend the address.
He or she remains at a secret location to make sure the government can
continue should calamity befall the nation’s president, vice-president and
other top leaders.
This time, that person, who is known as the designated survivor, was Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
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