Trump Cites Talks with International Leaders on Fighting COVID

July 20, 2020 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump held a press conference today with Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Congressional GOP leaders Sen. Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, after giving a one-hour interview to Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Saturday (broadcast Sunday). All questions, including all of Wallace’s, were “gotcha” attempts; however, the President described actions underway, aside from those related to Congressional debates this week on a COVID relief bill number 4.

Trump stressed today that he is talking to leaders around the world about the pandemic’s impact, and that he will start leading regular—perhaps daily—updates again as of Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. EDT. He reported discussions held today with French President Emmanuel Macron and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

While repeating “It came from China—they could have stopped it” about the coronavirus pandemic, Trump said, “I have been speaking with leaders all over the world, and in the last couple of weeks in particular.... But this is a worldwide problem.”

He said his resumed briefings would focus on two items: therapeutics and vaccines.

During the highly combative interview with Fox’s Wallace, the President noted that the recent Supreme Court decision on DACA residents in the United States (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals) “greatly expanded the presidential powers, and I intend to use them.” He spoke of a comprehensive health insurance plan coming from the White House, and a comprehensive immigration plan, in the next few weeks.

Trump informed Wallace that three states—Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada—are not permitting him to hold campaign rallies, indoor or outdoor, while allowing Black Lives Matter demonstrations. He also reminded Wallace, on the most-covered question of whether he would accept the result of an election marred by mail-in ballot voting, that it was Hillary Clinton who refused to accept the 2016 result—to which the Fox host had to agree. Neither went into the vast array of intelligence agency, FBI, State Department and other agents who had been recruited in advance by British intelligence not to allow Trump to act as President.