President Trump on Coronavirus: We Are Not Happy with China, Could Have Been Stopped at the Source

President Trump said at a White House Rose Garden press briefing on Monday that the administration is conducting “serious investigations” to hold China accountable for the spread of the coronavirus that originated from within its borders and has killed hundreds of thousands around the world.

“There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable. We’re doing very serious investigations, as you probably know. And we are not happy with China,” Trump said to Breitbart News senior White House correspondent Charlie Spiering.

“We are not happy with that whole situation, because we believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly, and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world. And we think that should have happened. So we’ll let you know at the appropriate time, but we are doing serious investigations,” Trump added.

A Harris poll earlier this month showed that the majority of Americans think China should pay reparations for the damage caused by coronavirus, which was first discovered in Wuhan, China.

Spiering also asked the president how American businesses can be less reliant on Chinese supply chains.

“Well we’ve already discussed that and especially having to do with medical supplies and others,” Trump said. “If you look prior to this virus, the deficit was coming way down under my administration, because I put massive tariffs on China.”

“We took in tens of billions of dollars, gave some of it to the farmers who are unfairly targeted by China. Nobody’s ever done that before. We never took in ten cents from China. Now all of a sudden, I think you know very well, we’ve taken in tens of billions of dollars,” Trump added.

“I helped the farmers by giving them–two years ago–$12 billion, all coming from China, and we had plenty left over, too. And then the following year, $16 billion. And this year we’re also going to help our farmers,” he said.

“But nobody’s ever done a thing like that, because they were targeted unfairly by China, so we’re doing a very strong investigation, and we’ll let you know what the result of that is. We should be able to get the answers to you.”

 

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