President Trump responds to reporter questions

and India behind you from here in India we won't talk too much about it apart from what i did just got back long flight it's a long flight he's a great gentleman a great leader he's an amazing country we were treated very very well and we really enjoyed it . A lot of tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship. Our relationship with India is extraordinary right now and we are going to do a lot of business with India. Now they are sending billions and billions of dollars to the United States. but I'd rather talk about this right now than they think it's inevitable that the virus will spread in the United States.

It is not a question of if, but when you agree with that assessment. it could be at a very small level it could be at a higher level whatever happens we are fully prepared we have the best people in the world you see that from the study we have the best prepared people the best people the people in the world Congress is willing to give us much more than we are asking for it is good for a change but we are totally ready willing and able is a term we use is ready willing and able we have we are going to be very well under control now it can grow and make it a little bigger it may not grow at all we will see what happens but whatever happens we are fully prepared please supreme acres they put in place in the new travel restrictions you can place for furniture now at this point you have the virus present italy south korea Are you planning to add those countries?

Well, instead, you know I'm the President of the United States. I am not the

president

of other countries. other countries some of the list that are highly respected in what they do in terms of what we're talking about but I really want to be responsible for this country if it means putting up a very strong situation on the border so people can't get into our country from a country that is infected that is what we are doing and we have already done it with numerous countries but we have to focus on this country I do not think it is correct to impose ourselves on others but if the others are not taking care of themselves or we believe they are incorrectly you know we're dealing with global health and we have great people and the cdc helps other countries give them recommendations on what to do but they're working in their countries that were working in our countries and so far our really worked very clear Are you considering restricting travel to and from South Korea, Italy, and other countries?

If I had a suitable time, we can do it right now. at the right time and we're checking people as they come in specifically for the problem the problem we're dealing with so we're checking a lot of people coming in from South Korea it's been pretty hard hit Italy it's been pretty tough china i It's obvious what happened in China but again the numbers seem to be leveling off and going down in China which is very good news so we'll see what happens they're going to a SAR spot to run the spot on the coronavirus response today .

Secretary Hayes R testified that he didn't think one was necessary, that they were going to take down HHS and you yourself have been downplaying this, so why are you now picking the vice

president

as vice president? He's in administration but I have everybody report to Mike Mike has been very good, very skilled anyone who knows anything about healthcare they look at the Indiana model and it's been a huge success it's been a tremendous model in terms of healthcare and this is really an offshoot of that so this is an azure I don't see my kisses are Mike as part of the administration but I'm having Mike reported Mike will report to me they will also report in some cases to both I'll go to the meetings quite a bit depending on what they want to do and what message we want to send but we've done a really remarkable job when you look at a country this size with so many people coming in number one in the world for people coming to a country so far and we have a total of 15 cases, many of which almost in one day.

I will tell you that most made a full recovery. I think it's a pretty impressive brand. We now accept 40 people who were American and they are also recovering but we brought them in so I call I have a different group but we felt we had an obligation to American citizens outside of the country that we are trying to get back to we thought that was very important. hit in the last few days, what can you do about it and if the CDC is right that the spread is inevitable, are you going to be dealing with stock market problems and economic problems for some time?

Well I really think the stock market if anything I know a lot about I think ok one hit maybe for two reasons I think they look at the people you saw shot down last night and they say if there's a chance of that happening I think that he really takes a hit for that and he certainly took a hit for this and I understand also because of the supply chains and various other things and the people coming in but I think the stock market will pick up the economy is very strong the consumer is the strongest there ever was or the consumers are awesome they're in awesome that's why we. they are doing well in other countries not even before the virus we are doing very well in other countries they have not done very well consumers very, very strong, very economically powerful, foreign cities as we saw in China and what would have to happen for you take if we have plans on a much larger scale if we need us to be working with states we're working with pretty much every state and we have plans on a much larger scale if we need them we don't think we can go you probably need it but you know that you always have to be prepared and again Congress is talking to us about funding and we're getting much more than we asked for and I think the best thing we can do is take it, we'll take it.

Are you willing to give it to Congress if it goes well? Let's see if it will take care of the states because the states are working very hard. We have hospitals and states making rooms available and building quarantine areas. we can keep people safe we're working very well with the states it's a very important part of that so you know my attitude if congress wants to give us the money that easy it wasn't very easy for the wall but we'll get it done if they want to give us the money and we will take the money we will just do a good job with it yes please mr.

President, should the Americans fly for protective equipment, like massive missiles, etc.? doing to push mass production well we can get a large quantity in fact we have ordered a large quantity in case we need it we may not need it you get it but in case we are looking at the worst of the cases. we're going to establish ourselves very quickly, but I don't think we're going to be anywhere near that. I really don't think we're going to get anywhere near our borders being heavily controlled. areas we're talking about a lot of control I don't think we'll ever get close to that please go back to the stock market for a second travel related stocks have been especially yes camera here in the last few days what would you say to americans who right now are looking forward to the summer or the next few months and are saying to themselves whether he should make plans for the summer, whether he should travel abroad, well I hope they can do that, we think we hope he will be in good shape for that time but you know they're going to have to go back to main a little bit flexible yeah I would say travel related companies certainly right now that would be that would be they would be hurt at the same time this ends this will end hopefully sooner than late and I think the business that they lost will be picked up at a later date, but right now I think they probably won't go to China, they won't go to certain countries where the problem is much bigger than that. is in the United States, what it is going to do is keep people at home and they are going to travel to the places that we have we have the best, it is the country with the largest tourism in the world, so instead of leaving our country and leave our shores they're going to stay here again and again when I have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days dwindles to almost zero that's a pretty good job we've done what's your response to the speaker Philippians not today He knows you're talking about the corona virus.

I'm also wondering if you want to address the critics: well, I think your administration is safe. I think Speaker Pelosi is incompetent. She lost Congress once. I think she will lose it again. that he would see that so quickly and so easily I'm leading everyone we're doing great I don't want to do it that way it's almost unfair if you think about it but I think he's incompetent and I think he's not thinking about the country and instead making a statement like the one where i've been routinely bashing her on everything instead of making a statement like that i should say we need to work together because we potentially have a big problem and maybe it's going to be a very small problem i hope it's a small problem but we have to work together instead she wants to do the same with Brian Chuck Schumer comes out and says the president only asked for two and a half billion dollars it should take eight and a half if this is the first time they tell me we should take more for what The general is that we need to drink less and we should work together I shouldn't make statements like that because it's very bad for the country and Nancy Pelosi, I mean I should go back to a district and clean it up because it's number one if you look at the percentage down it was one of the best in the world and now you look at what's going on and I'm just saying we should all be working together she's trying to create panic and there's no reason to panic because we have done very well these professionals behind me and here and there and back here and in some conference rooms I just left a group of 45 people who are the most talented people in the world, parts of the world we they ask in a very nice way if they can step in and help them so Nancy Pelosi should be male she knows that's not true she knows that all they are trying to do is gain political advantage this is not ab out of advantage politics we are all trying to do the right thing they shouldn't be saying this is terrible president

trump

is not asking for enough money what a stupid thing to say if they want to give us more money that's fine we will take m more money some republicans think we should have more money ok we will take more money but they should refer to the people on stage who are the best in the world they are not demoting me they are demoting the best professionals in the health in the world and people doing exactly what we are talking about your campaign today sue the new york times over an op-ed yes is it your opinion or is it your opinion that if people have an opinion contrary to the hers? they should be sued well when they have a totally wrong opinion like the New York Times did and frankly they've been very wrong in recent years so we'll see how that allows that to work in court.

It is beyond an opinion that is not an opinion. That is much more than an opinion. They did something wrong and there will be more to come. Tokyo later. Buster survived. You wait what can we be? I hope so because Shinzo Abbey is a very good friend of mine. I hope she is in good shape, as she knows that there are several people in Japan who have been infected. I heard that they are doing a very professional job, which doesn't surprise me at all with Shinzo and all the people. Do I know Japan very well? I think they will handle it very well.

It's a little tight. You know it's a little tight. They spent billions of dollars building one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and their Prime Minister is very proud. From that I hope you will be fine we hope you will be very thankful mr. The president, the CDC doctor, just talked about dusting off preparedness plans. I come from you and it has more weight. Do you think US schools should prepare for the spread of the coronavirus? specifically about that with the various doctors, but I think yes, I think all aspects of our society need to be prepared.

I don't think it's going to come to that, especially with the fact that we're going down, not going up very substantially down, not up, but yeah, I think schools should be getting ready and you know, get ready in case the words be just in case we don't think we're going to be there we don't think we're going to be anywhere near and again if you look at some countries they're going down and starting to go in the other direction this will end this will end look at the season of Flu, I said 26,000 people, I've never heard of a number like that. sixty-nine thousand people doctor you tell me before 69 thousand arena people die every year from 26 to 69 every year from the flu now you think it's unbelievable so far the results of all this what everyone is reading about and part of the thing is that you want to keep it as it is you don't want to see panic because there's no reason to panic but when i mentioned the flu i said i actually askedseveral doctors i said is this is like the flu because people die from the flu and this is very unusual and it's a little bit different but in some ways it's easier and in some ways it's a little bit harder but i do we got so well under control i mean we really have done a very good job mr.

Chairman, you mentioned the stock market earlier to come back to that to be clear, the Dow fell over 2,000 points this week, are you suggesting that was overblown? our financial markets overreacted here I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democratic candidates standing on that stage making a fool of themselves and saying if we ever have a president like this and there's always the chance it's going to be an election, you know who knows what happens i think we are going to win i think we are going to win by a lot but when you look at the statements made by people they stand behind those podiums i think it has a big effect you have to do with the quranic , well, I think so, I think so, but I think you. can you add a little bit of winding up to what they're saying because they're seeing the potential you know again I think we're going to win I feel very confident about that we've done everything and much more than I said we were going to make you look at what we've done what we've done is amazing with the tax cuts and the regulation cuts and rebuilding our military taking care of our veterans and giving them choice and responsibility all the things we've done protecting our Second Amendment I mean to see that the Second Amendment is what they're going to destroy the 2nd Amendment when people see they say this is no good so you add that I really think it's a factor but no this is what we're talking about it's the virus we're about speaking I think I do believe in terms of CNBC and in terms of Fox Business I think that's a yes factor and I think after I win the election I think the stock market is going to thrive like never before as c Since it did by the way after I won the last election the stock market went up like a rocket the next day at what point would you consider travel restrictions when we're at a point where we have no problem you know we don't we're going to loosen the travel restrictions that's what saved us if you hadn't alluded to Mike if you hadn't made a decision early on not to bring people from a certain area we wouldn't be talking this way we would be talking about a lot more people they would have been infected.

I criticized myself a lot. I mean some people call me a racist because I made a decision very early and we have never done that before as a country let alone early so it was you. i know a bold decision turned out to be a good decision but the democrats criticized me they called me a racist because i made that decision if you can believe we have to all work together we cant say bad things and especially when we have the best team anywhere in the world and it really we gave it an early start we gave it a very early start because we can get money and we can increase if we know all the people we know all the good people is a question I asked the doctors before some of the people we cut took shelter.

It hasn't been used for many years and if we have a need and we can get them very quickly and instead of spending the money and I'm a business person I don't like having thousands of people around when we don't We don't need them when we need them and we can get them back very quickly, for example, we'll bring in some people tomorrow who are already on this. I've already done that, I mean we've really built, we've got a great staff, and I'm using Mike. I'm doing it because he's in administration and he's very good at doing what he does and doing what's related to it so far. um, but you for his administration are only testing less than 500 people and health officials are wondering if that's enough compared to other countries that have tested more than tens of thousands of people.

Are you planning to test more people? well we are testing everyone you need to test and we are finding very few problems very few problems now you treat this like a flu we were in fact i could ask one of the doctors to come and explain to me do you want to wash your hands a lot do you want to stay if you are not you feel good if you feel like you have the flu stay inside like in quarantine don't go out but there are certain steps you can take that won't even be necessary you know that in many cases when you get this it's very mild you don't even know there's a problem sometimes you just they get a cold sometimes they get something that doesn't feel quite right and sometimes they feel really bad but that's a bit like the flu it's a bit like the regular flu we have flu shots and essentially we'll have a flu shot flu for this in a pretty quick way yeah come on two weeks ago mr.

The president, the acting director of the OMB, was in this room, he was talking about what he expects GDP growth to be next year, he said it was 3% and we've talked about the effects of the coronavirus on the supply chain supply that tilts in the financial markets, are you still confident that you will see that kind of economic growth? Not this, we are going to have tremendously low unemployment. We are setting records, and in fact, the administration had the lowest unemployment rate. of any administration in history and our numbers are very low very good 3.5 3.6 but you can't really see what this does in terms of GDP it might affect it but that's irrelevant compared to what we're talking about we want to make sure it's a safe security number one but this would let you know an impact on GDP but we're still very very we're very good but this will have how I'll tell you what has a big impact Boeing has a big impact how did it happen a year ago all of a sudden that happened ened I think that took half a point off a point even you know it's a huge company I think Boeing we had the General Motors strike that had a huge impact on GDP and of course we are paying for it I don't agree with the head of the Federal Reserve I'm not I'm not happy with what it is because you've kept interest rates that President Obama didn't have anywhere near the numbers and yet if you look at what happened I was for earning zero, now we are paying interest, it is more conservative. and frankly people who save their money are now getting a return on their money instead of getting nothing at all but I think you know where with the biggest of all we should be paying the lowest interest rates and when Germany and other countries are paying negative rates, which means they literally get paid when they take money out.

I mean, they borrow money and get paid when it's paid back. with our Fed I think our Fed has made a terrible mistake and it would have made a big difference as good as we have even without the 2,000 points and we started at 16,000 and we'll be 28,000 without us breaking 30,000 we've had increases like no one has seen it before but we are doing well but we have to see that we are doing well anyway in other words even despite 2000 points it seems like a lot and it is a lot but it is nothing it is very little compared to what we have gone up but we will be watching it very closely but it has hurt us General Motors has hurt us Boeing and it has hurt us in my opinion it has hurt us a lot our own Federal Reserve which has also created a very strong dollar which that's a nice thing about a strong dollar but it makes it much harder to do business outside of this country thank you sir yes several of your followers online have embraced these theories or have passed on these theories I know that the CDC may be exaggerating the threat of coronavirus to hurt you politically and rush limbaugh the other day said this has been advanced to weaponize the virus against you you are not my supporters you mean my my non support people true you are i agree with that i think and i wish he would make it loud i think people know that when chuck schumer gets mad he did the same thing to a couple of business deals which are phenomenal deals now everyone has acknowledged phenomenal deals before to see the day when I didn't even know we were going to make a deal.

They said what do you think of the deal with China? I didn't even know the deal and he was out there beating it up because it's a natural thing to say but when you're talking about something like this especially we have to be on the same team this is too important we have to be on the same as the CDC is trying to hurt you - no, I don't think the CDC is, oh no, they've been working very well together, they're professionals, I think maybe they want this to go away, they want to do it with as little disruption and they don't want to lose. life I see the way they work there in this channel these people behind me and others who are in the other room are amazing people no I don't see that at all thank you sir person thank you president tonight you are minimizing the risk of danger from the virus to you you're telling americans except those who are sick not to change any other view of their behaviors no i think you always have to watch i do it a lot anyway you probably heard wash your hands stay clean no you have to necessarily grab every handrail unless you have to know you do certain things that you do when you have the flu i mean look at this the same way you do the flu when someone sneezes i mean i try to rescue as much as possible with the sneezing, a man came up to me a week ago, I hadn't seen him for a long time and said how are you.

He said fine, honey. He hugged me. Kiss. this like you know it's going to be a total travel ban you said obama was a stubborn idiot foot port not for doing it you said stop the dumb flights you also said it was a total joke in quotes appoint someone to lead the ebola response with appointment zero experience in the medical field now you hear a lot of what I had to say I didn't listen very well because this is a very different problem than Ebola Ebola you disintegrated especially in the beginning they made a lot of progress now on ebola but with the ebola we were talking about it before you disintegrated you got ebola that was it this is different very different this is a flu this is like a flu and this is a very different situation than ebola but and we . we're working on ebola right now, by the way, we're working on the certificate In some areas of Congo, Congo has ebola and it's largely caused by the fact that there's a war going on and people can't get there.

Now we can treat Ebola because at that time it was infectious and could not be treated. Nobody knew anything about it. no one had ever heard of such a thing so it's a very different situation over the course of the last few minutes you have questioned some of the things that the officials working in your administration behind you have said about the risk of crotavirus and spread do you trust your health officials to give you good information or do you trust your instincts? I don't think I said it could be worse and I said it could be worse.

Are you all something? No, I do not think so. it's inevitable I don't think it's inevitable I think we're doing a very good job in terms of maintaining borders and changing the terms of letting people in in terms of controlling people and also that's one of the reasons why I'm here today to get the word out so people can They still know they're going to know no I don't think it's I don't think it's inevitable I think there's a chance it's going to get worse like a chance it's going to get substantially worse but nothing's inevitable Brazil right Brazil and you have a lot of americans now in brazil for carnival, what are your concerns and what are the procedures and practices you plan to put in place as those americans are trying to come back? it's a big country but it only has one case but it's still a case we treat brazil very well the president is a very good friend of mine in fact he applied exactly it's called make brazil great again that's what he applied we got along very well Well, I know that you are very excited to know that we get along very, very well and we are working with Brazil, but we have instances that are much worse than Brazil, you know that you have Italy and you have other countries where they have much more than one person. they have a person right now as of now like it was a person in Brazil a while ago, but Italy is a deeper problem and we are looking at the people that come from those and at some point we can cut that, you know? at some point depending on what happens we may cut off certain additional countries like we've done with China and hopefully we can open it up to China as soon as possible and hopefully the numbers that we've been getting hopefully the numbers that we've been getting are true in China, where it really leveled off and started to go down because eventually sometimes that's going to happen, go ahead, you've said repeatedly that you think the federal government is very prepared, that you're ready for this, but if you think the secretary, a czar , you are doing a great job, why did you feel the need? make a change and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the federal response to this becauseI think the secretary is doing a fantastic job but he also has a lot of other things, I mean we're working on a lot of things together if you look at his schedule of what he's doing, including drug prices, and I think it's maybe the most complicated thing we have in government and I want him to be able to focus on that and Mike is really good at it they're going to work together they're going to work very closely and they're both in administration I see them all the time so it really works this is in a zar this is not going out and getting someone who has never been in management I have two people who are very talented and it's something I feel good about I don't want it I don't want to do without the horses I have very talented people I want to use them in this because wanted to stay low or as low as possible China in the at the beginning of this outbreak the Chinese Communist Party covered it up that has been the general consensus of all how can you now confi ar legitimately in President Xing and in the vision of the Chinese region of China, the fourth coming and the fourth right with this?

Well I can tell you this. I talk to him I talked to him very recently and he's working very hard on this problem he's working very hard and they're very tough and very smart and it's significant it's a significant group of very talented people who are working and calling dr. fauci are calling our people we are dealing with them we are giving them some advice that we actually have through world health we have them there too and we have a lot of our people forming that group that went there no he is working very hard to be very easy for me to say you know no matter what i say i can really tell you he is working i had a long talk with him the other night he is working very very hard he wants him to go away from china and go fast and he wants to get back to the normal we don't know and the flu is higher than that the flu is monitored other than it is spreading or will spread maybe within community steps you can wait admission that worries you because we are ready for that it is what it is we are ready for it we are really prepared we have as I said we have had we have the best people in the world we are very ready for it we hope it doesn't spread there is a possibility ad that it doesn't spread and there's a chance that then it will be a question of to what level have we done a great job so far when you have 15 people with this whole world coming into the United States and all 15 people are better or close to be better, that's pretty good, okay okay I'll do one later mr. president there ben thank you there have been many cases of price gouging in sales of medical equipment masks etc if the government investigates that starts i think you have a message if you tell me that is happening we would definitely investigate , we do not do it.

I want you to be working with China right now specifically in what area are you also working with China we just did the biggest trade deal in history we did two of them between us MCA and the deal with China is the biggest ever the relationship with China is a very good and I can tell you again President Xi is working very hard he wants this problem so work as hard as you can thank you all thank you