Trump: American students stuck in Peru are coming home. (Kudos to @MichLKosinski for raising their profile on here). Trump announces a military action was taken somewhere to get someone home "who was being accosted horribly". Unclear where, when, or why.
Trump calls social distancing guidelines "so important....defeating this unseen enemy requires the commitment of every single American".
Trump says members of Congress infected with coronavirus including @RandPaul "will be fine, they'll all be fine".
Trump: "I think it's going to be a tremendous day when we win this war, and we will win this war....we want to have as few number of deaths as possible".
Trump announcing federal medical stations with thousands of beds for New York, California and Washington state. Naval hospital ship USS Mercy will be deployed to Los Angeles to surge medical capacity.
Trump: US Army Corps of Engineers being deployed to build "alternative care sites" in New York. This is something @NYGovCuomo first sought more than a week ago.
Trump saying 186k N95 face masks have been delivered to New York. Now listing protective clothing. 68,000 surgical gowns....etc.
Trump: "The numbers are quite large and we have tremendous amounts of companies making equipment".
Trump keeps emphasizing the federal government is providing National Guard support to NY and Washington "at no cost to the state". Like that was ever even an issue.
Trump: "The outpouring from the private sector has also been extraordinary". Says Honeywell is going to produce millions of extra N-95 masks in Rhode Island. Provides no time-line on when those masks may be fabricated and distributed.
Having said yesterday he thought health-care workers should be washing the masks "with liquids", he now concedes they're "very high-end".
We're now on a bizarre tangent about being able to fire "sadistic" doctors in the Veterans Administration.
Trump claiming he has "the highest poll numbers in the history" of the Veterans Administration. Very much something that's on the mind of Americans tonight from coast-to-coast.
Now the daily riff about tele-health, always accompanied by a sense of wonderment.
Trump: "On Tuesday, we're goigh to have some medications delivered and we'll see how they work". Tells reporters "you know how I feel", presumably about the hydroxychloroquine he's been shamelessly promoting for days.
Trump finally answers @PeterAlexander's question from Friday: "I know this is a challenging time for all Americans". "We are all joined together as one people eternally linked by our shared national spirit". See, wasn't that hard after all.
Trump: "For those worried & afraid please know that for as long as I am your President you will always have a leader who will work & fight for you...it's going to be a victory that in my opinion will happen much sooner than expected". Took 48 hours for him to get it out.
FEMA Administrator Gaynor: Hospital ship USS Mercy will be in place in Los Angeles "within a week" of the President's order.
We're not learning very much knew in any of this. National Guard being deployed to NY, CA and WA. "This is not martial law", Gaynor assures reporters.
Presidential assistant Peter Navarro now speaking. So absolutely anything could happen.
Neither Dr. Fauci nor Dr. Birx are participating in this briefing. Lucky for them, but not necessarily for the country.
Navarro warns unidentified "hoarders" he will use Defense Production Act to "come after them" if they fail to hand valuable supplies over to the anti-coronavirus effort.
10 days in, Pence claims "backlog on testing" will be cleared by "the middle of the week"
No word on the national website that Trump pledged to bring on line last Sunday to help Americans locate test facilities. That seems long-forgotten at this point.
Trump very excited about the "stainless steel" rooms aboard the hospital ships.
Trump, disgracefully: "Romney's in isolation? Gee, that's too bad".
Trump, bafflingly, equates the use of the Defense Production Act with "nationalising the economy", and starts talking about Venezuela. "If you go the nationalization route, we tell them to make ventilators, they don't even know what that is". Absurd narrative.
🚨🚨Trump claims China could have told USA "three months sooner" about coronoavirus. First time he's offered up a timeline beyond simply saying "months". Offers no evidence to support his claim that the information was suppressed for that length of time.
Trump, asked if he's reached out to any of his predecessors for advice: "I have the best people in the world. I think we're doing an extraordinary job".
Trump: "I don't want to disturb them, bother them, and I guess you could say there's a natural inclination not to call"
Trump asked, somewhat bafflingly, when it will be time to re-open the American economy. "I can't say right now".
Asked whether he would commit that his businesses won't benefit from government bailouts, Trump demurs. "When I announced I wouldn't take my salary, nobody thanked me....I get excoriated all the time. Let's just see what happens. We have to save some of these great companies".
Dr. Trump again promoting hydroxychloroquine "based on very strong evidence". Not a single medical professional is today alongside him to point out - again - that he's promoting an entirely unproven "cure".
Meantime: propublica.org/article/lupus-…
"I'm a little up set with China, I'll be honest with you. As much as I like President Xi....they shoulda told us about this. And I did ask him whether we could send some people in, they didn't want that. Out of pride..."
Trump: "If they went in, they would have been able to give us a much earlier indication". Not a clue how he thinks that works.
Good lord, the Surgeon General.
