Amid increasing speculation that New York will be quarantined to stop people from departing the metropolitan area, President Trump answers journalist questions from joint base Andrews prior to departure. [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – Q Thank you, Mr. President. Just a quick clarification on the total quarantine you’re talking about for New York City. Would you —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re looking at it. We’re looking at it, and we’ll be making a decision. A lot of the states that aren’t infected, that don’t have a big problem, they’ve asked me if I’d look at it. So we’re going to look at it. And it will be for a short period of time, if we do it at all.
Chopper pressers are the best pressers. While departing the White House for Virginia, President Trump stopped to answer quick questions from the media.
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[Transcript] – Q Mr. President, do you think the Easter timeline is off the table now, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to see what happens. We want to get our country back to work. The doctors, nurses, first responders — everybody doing a phenomenal job, like beyond good.
I’m going to — as you know, the Comfort — the great ship, Comfort — is stocked up to the gills. It’s right up to the top. And we’re going over there. I guess some of you are coming with me. But we’re going to send that up to New York four weeks ahead of schedule. And it is loaded up with everything. So that’s great.
[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Been a very busy day. I want to thank the American people for the incredible sacrifices that they’re making on behalf of our nation. And I want to encourage everyone to keep following our guidelines on social distancing: avoiding large gatherings and hand washing, and all of the other things that everybody knows they’re supposed to be doing.
Ultimately, the goal is to ease the guidelines and open things up to very large sections of our country as we near the end of our historic battle with the invisible enemy. Been going for a while, but we’ll win. We’ll win.
President Trump, Vice President Pence and members of the coronavirus task force sit down with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and Harris Faulkner for a virtual town hall. The event is ongoing
President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence lead the daily briefing of the coronavirus task force from the White House briefing room. [Video Below – Transcript ADDED]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus.
We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it. In other words, I think you all know what it is, and it can do a lot of good things if we need it. And we will — we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while. Right after I’m finished with this conference, I’ll be signing it. It’s prepared to go. So we will be invoking the Defense Production Act.
Earlier today President Trump met with executives from the U.S. tourism industry to discuss how their operation are impacted by the various COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
Participants included: Roger Dow, President & CEO, Travel Association; Chip Rogers, President & CEO, American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA); Jon Bortz, President and CEO, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and AHLA Chairman; Elie Maalouf, President, The Americas, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG); Christopher Nassetta, President & CEO, Hilton; Arne Sorenson, President & CEO, Marriott International; Richard Bates, EVP, Disney; Mark Hoplamazian, President & CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation; John Sprouls, Chief Administrative Officer, Universal Parks and Resorts; Patrick Pacious, President and CEO, Choice Hotels International; David Kong, CEO, Best Western Hotels and Resorts; Jim Murren, President & CEO, MGM [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We have the tourism industry executives, the biggest anywhere in the world. These are the great ones, and they’re going to say a couple of little words pretty soon, I think. We’ll talk about their company quickly and the number of employees and what’s happened since the Chinese virus came about. And they’ll be discussing that.
Earlier today President Trump and the COVID-19 task force held a press conference to outline the latest mitigation steps. [Transcript Below]
[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.
A beautiful day in the Rose Garden. Appreciate everybody being here. Today, I’d like to provide an update to the American people on several decisive new actions we’re taking in our very vigilant effort to combat and ultimately defeat the coronavirus.
We’ve been working very hard on this. We’ve made tremendous progress. When you compare what we’ve done to other areas of the world, it’s pretty incredible. A lot of that had to do with the early designation and the closing of the borders.
Earlier today U.S. President Trump and Ireland Prime Minister Varadkar held a press availability prior to their bilateral meeting. [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you all very much. It’s an honor to be with the Prime Minister of Ireland. We’ve known each other now for quite a while, and we have a great relationship and a great relationship with Ireland. And we have a lot to discuss.
We will be talking about the obvious, and we’ll also be talking about the virus that’s hit the world. I see they’ve cancelled their big soccer games, their championship games, and a lot of other games. They’ve cancelled a lot over in Europe and all over the world. So this is big world problem.
Tonight at 9:00pm ET, President Donald Trump will address the nation on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Oval Office. The address will be carried live on most major news broadcasts with additional livestream links below.
