TRUMP SIGNS AID PACKAGE, INVOKES EMERGENCY POWERS
WASHINGTON — Describing himself as a “wartime president” fighting an invisible enemy, President Donald Trump on Wednesday invoked rarely used emergency powers to marshal critical medical supplies against the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also signed an aid package — which the Senate approved earlier Wednesday — that will guarantee sick leave to workers who fall ill.
Trump tapped his authority under the 70-year-old Defense Production Act to give the government more power to steer production by private companies and try to overcome shortages in masks, ventilators and other supplies.
Yet he seemed to minimize the urgency of the decision, later tweeting that he “only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future.
“Hopefully there will be no need,” he added, “but we are all in this TOGETHER!”
The Canada-U.S. border, the world’s longest, was effectively closed, save for commerce and essential travel, while the administration pushed its plan to send relief checks to millions of Americans.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a second coronavirus response bill, which Trump signed Wednesday night. The vote was a lopsided 90-8 despite worries by many Republicans about a temporary new employer mandate to provide sick leave to workers who get COVID-19. The measure is also aimed at making tests for the virus free.
Meanwhile, the administration pushed forward its broad economic rescue plan, which proposes $500 billion in checks to millions of Americans, with the first checks to come April 6 if Congress approves.
Trump said no decision has been made on the size of the checks the administration hopes to send Americans, although a figure of $1,000 has been frequently mentioned.
Trump told reporters that “everyone wants to go big” but that the size of the checks was still being worked out.
Celeb tests raise questions
The White House urged hospitals to cancel all elective surgeries to reduce the risk of being overwhelmed by cases. The president was pressed on why a number of celebrities, like professional basketball players, seemed to have easier access to diagnostic tests than ordinary citizens.
“Perhaps that’s the story of life,” Trump said. “I’ve heard that happens on occasion.”
Trump dismissed a suggestion from his own Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, that the nation could face 20% unemployment at least in the short term.
That’s an “absolute total worst-case scenario,” Trump said. “We’re no way near it.”
The government has told Americans to avoid groups of more than 10 people and the elderly to stay home while a pointed reminder was given to millennials to follow the guidelines and avoid social gatherings. Trump likened the effort to the measures taken during World War II and said it would require national “sacrifice.”
“It’s a war,” he said. “I view it as a, in a sense, a wartime president. It’s a very tough situation.”
Trump defends ‘Chinese virus’ term
The president also employed more nativist, us-vs.-them rhetoric at the briefing, continuing his recent habit of referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus,” which has been sharply criticized as racist.
“It’s not racist at all,” Trump said, adding that he calls it the “Chinese virus” because he wants to be accurate. He indicated his terminology was a warranted pushback to Chinese officials who have been suggesting the U.S. military might have introduced the virus to Wuhan, the Chinese city where it was first reported in late 2019.
“China had tried to say at one point — maybe they stopped now — that it was caused by American soldiers,” Trump said. “That can’t happen. It’s not going to happen, not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”
Trump was asked about a report that a White House aide had referred to the virus as the “Kung flu” when talking to an Asian American reporter and Trump did not signal disapproval of the offensive term.
Congressmen test positive
In the House, Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, RFla., and Ben McAdams, D-Utah, released statements saying they had tested positive for COVID-19 — the first two known cases in Congress. Several other lawmakers have cycled in and out of self-isolation after exposure to individuals who had later tested positive for the virus.
“I want everyone to know that I am feeling much better,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement Wednesday.