NY Times Reporter Says Americans in Paris Spent Thousands on Flights After Hearing Fake Info From Trump
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New York Times reporter Mike McIntire said Americans have already started shelling out thousands of dollars in travel costs because of President Donald Trump’s error-filled coronavirus address.
Shortly after Trump announced that the U.S. would suspend all European travel, the Department of Homeland security released a statement saying the ban would allow for multiple exceptions to foreign nationals, and “does not apply to legal permanent residents…immediate family members of US citizens, and other individuals who are identified in the proclamation.”
On top of that, Trump contradicted what he said about the impact the policy would have on trade with this tweet:
Hoping to get the payroll tax cut approved by both Republicans and Democrats, and please remember, very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2020
McIntire tweeted from the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Thursday, describing the scene as “bedlam,” and adding that he was worried about not getting a flight back to the U.S. quickly enough after Trump’s speech.
The flurry McIntire encountered while trying to buy plane tickets ended up prompting him to purchase some “that cost more than my monthly mortgage payment,” just for him to find out Americans are not banned as Trump suggested they would be.
Judging by McIntire’s thread and the scene he described from the airport, it would seem that he was not alone in what he experienced.
2/ I know because I’m one of them. Was awakened at 2:15 am Paris time by a concerned relative in America saying “Trump just banned all travel from Europe!” Turning on TV, I saw that indeed appeared to be so.
— Mike McIntire (@mmcintire) March 12, 2020
4/ Looked at buying completely new tickets for today or Friday and saw prices rising and tickets disappearing before my eyes. Fearing the worst if we did nothing, I pulled the trigger on new tickets that cost more than my monthly mortgage payment.
— Mike McIntire (@mmcintire) March 12, 2020
6/ Now we have tickets for two flights to NYC: our original one on Saturday and a new one for today. Went online and tried to at least cancel the Saturday flight (see above tweet for details on how that went).
— Mike McIntire (@mmcintire) March 12, 2020
Just to clarify, I didn’t spend $20,000 on tickets (what I DID spend was bad enough). A Delta ticket agent at CDG told me that’s how much one American passenger spent online in the hours after President Trump’s announcement.
— Mike McIntire (@mmcintire) March 12, 2020
