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United States President Donald Trump has defended his handling of the coronavirus, suggesting that the United States’ response to the pandemic is admired worldwide.
Speaking at the White House on Friday when he received Republican members of Congress, Trump said he had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders in recent days.
“Almost everyone sees us as the world leader and is following us,” he said.
Trump said nine factories were now building fans and shipping equipment to other countries. He also noted the level of testing taking place across the United States.
“They want to know what we are doing. . . you never hear that from the media. What we are doing is incredible, “he said. Predicting that the third quarter will be a” transition “period for the United States economy, he said:” What we have done has been incredible, we will continue to do it. going into transition. I call it a transition to greatness … We are going to have a phenomenal year next year, “pointing to” tremendous pent-up demand. “
His comments come when the death toll in the United States exceeded 76,000, the highest death toll in the world.
Economic impact
New data released on Friday also showed the serious impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the economy. The official unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression.
Some 20.5 million people lost their jobs last month, according to figures from the labor department.
It compares to an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent in March and 3.5 percent in February.
A breakdown of the figures shows that the hospitality industry was particularly hard hit, and the sector lost 7.7 million jobs last month. Some 2.1 million jobs were lost in retail, while the figure was 1.3 million in the manufacturing sector.
Trump played down the new job numbers. “Those jobs will come back, and they will come back very soon,” he said when the news of the numbers came out during a morning telephone interview with the Fox & Friends television program.
However, analysts said the data is likely to underestimate the unemployment rate as many of the surveys used were conducted in early April.
As the number of coronavirus cases continued to rise, it became known that a second staff member working at the White House tested positive for coronavirus. An assistant for Mike Pence was found to contract the disease on Friday. The development delayed the departure of Air Force Two from Washington to Iowa on Friday, as some Pence staff members were forced to disembark.
Trump valet
The development comes a day after a valet to Trump was confirmed positive for Covid-19. The president played down the news and said he is tested daily. However, he confirmed on Friday that an antibody test has not yet been done to determine if he is immune to Covid-19.
Trump also hit the FBI multiple times on Friday after the Justice Department’s unexpected decision to drop the charges against Michael Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador. .
During his interview with Fox News, Trump denounced the FBI leadership that pursued the Russian investigation as “dirty cops, horrible people.” Hopefully they pay a great price. “He also expressed uncertainty about the future of current FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom he named.” Let’s see what happens to him. . . the jury is still out. “
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