Trump Signs $8.3 Billion Coronavirus Spending Bill: An ‘Unforeseen Problem’ That ‘Came Out Of Nowhere’
President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion dollar spending bill to fight the growing coronavirus outbreak in the United States Friday morning, touting that he asked for $2.5 billion but got $8.3 billion, and billing the deadly virus an “unforeseen problem” that “came out of nowhere.”
After the signing, Trump took questions from the media, wearing a windbreaker ahead of his trip to Tennesse to survey the damage from tornados, which ripped through the area.
“So we’re signing the $8.3 billion. I asked for 2.5 and I got 8.3 and I’ll take it,” Trump said, before turning his attention to a quarantined cruise ship.
“Okay. So here we are. $8.3 billion. Doing very well. It’s an unforeseen problem…Came out of nowhere. We’re taking care of it. We have big news on the ship. A lot of things are happening on the ship. People are being tested right now. And I just spoke to the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. Had a good conversation. We’re both working on the ship together. It’s close to 5,000 people. So it’s a big ship. We are doing testing on those people.”
“Okay? Could I have those other papers I’m going to sign, please? These are additional papers related to various things,” Trump said, proceeding to sign other documents.
When asked by a reporter why he was not heading to Atlanta today to visit the CDC, Trump said it was due to reports that someone might have had the virus there.
Trump added that he still might be going.
“We may go. There was — they thought there was a problem at CDC, with somebody that had the virus. It turned out negative, so we’re seeing what we can do. But yesterday afternoon, we were informed that there may have been a person with the virus, and they now find out that that was negative test. They’ve tested the person very fully, and it was a negative test. So I may be going. We’re going to see if they can turn it around with Secret Service. We may be going.”
Trump then tossed a pen to a reporter “after covering me so well for so long,” while boasting it was the first time he ever gave a pen to someone in the press.
After speaking on the newly released job numbers, Trump dismissed fears regarding the virus and said he doesn’t believe “people are panicking.”
Trump also stated that the virus will “go away.”
“I don’t think people are panicking….I said last night, we did an interview on Fox last night. A townhall. I think it was very good. And I said calm. You have to be calm. It will go away. We do have a situation where we have this massive ship with 5,000 people, and we have to make a decision. You know, it’s a big decision because we have very low numbers compared to major countries throughout the world. Our numbers are lower than just about anybody. And in terms of deaths, I don’t know what the count is today. Is it 11? 11 people,” Trump said.
Trump then confusingly credited the low case number to being “because we’ve been very strong on the borders.”
While Trump likes to boast about the border, experts say the low number of cases can be partly attributed to the fact that the United States is behind on making a sufficient number of test kits available to hospitals.
Watch above, via CNN.
