Trump news: President claims US doing ‘sooo much better on testing’ than any other country as coronavirus cases pass 1m and death toll surpasses Vietnam War
White House pushes for meatpacking plants to reopen as Covid-19 deaths reach another grim milestone
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Donald Trump declared, without evidence, that the US is “doing sooo much better than any other country in the world” in testing for coronavirus after pledging at the White House that America would “soon” have the capacity to test 5m people per day.
But on Wednesday, less than 24 hours later, he falsely claimed that he never said the US would be testing at that rate.
The president’s optimism came despite the country passing 1m cases of Covid-19 and 60,000 deaths, a grim marker that officials initially said the US wouldn't reach until August.
Within four months of the outbreak, the nation's death toll has surpassed the total deaths from conflicts leading up to and during the Vietnam War over two decades.
Mr Trump has meanwhile invoked the Defense Production Act to keep American meatpacking plants open, despite declining to do so for the sake of ventilators or personal protective equipment, as his vice president Mike Pence finds himself in hot water for refusing to wear a mask during an official visit to the Mayo Clinic medical facility in Minnesota on Tuesday.
For the third day in a row, the president met with business leaders to discuss the coronavirus response and reopening plans as states begin to preparations to "reopen" against the warnings of health officials and epidemiologists.
He also claimed that coronavirus is "going to leave" despite, even without a vaccine.
"It's gonna be eradicated," he said. "It might take longer, it might be in smaller sections. It won't be what we had."
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Trump switches to upbeat messaging about reopening country amid economic worries
The White House has shifted to a strategy of focusing almost exclusively on getting the country open again amid the coronavirus outbreak, though a top aide to the president warns of more economic turmoil.
"Everyone wants to open up," Donald Trump said on Wednesday of governors and US residents, striking an optimistic tone during an afternoon event with industry executives.
"I think there is tremendous pent-up demand," Mr Trump said at one point.
"You'll see some astonishing numbers," the president said at another point.
"Frankly, I really feel like next year is going to be a really god year economically," he said. "I'm feeling very much so that it's going to be very successful."
John T Bennett with the full story:
Trump's 'Operation Warp Speed' aims to make 300m doses of vaccine by January
In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration is attempting fast-track the development and production of a vaccine for the coronavirus that would give the US the ability to inoculate 300m people by January 2021.
The administration is calling the Manhattan Project-style vaccination programme "Operation Warp Speed," Bloomberg News reported, and is hoping to cut the time before rolling out an effective vaccine to the masses by as many as eight months.
Griffin Connolly reports:
Trump meets with Louisiana's Democratic governor on testing and coronavirus response
After meeting with Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is pressing for his state to reopen despite delaying stay-at-home measures as climbing infection rates were spreading, Donald Trump met with the only Democrat governor in the deep South about his state's coronavirus response.
On Wednesday, the president met with Louisiana's John Bel Edwards, who has been met with fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers in his state after he extended the state's stay-at-home mandate through 15 May.
The meeting strikes a stark contrast from where the two men were late last year, when the president was rallying for Governor Edwards' Republican rival in the state's gubernatorial election.
Louisiana's alarmingly high per capita death and infection rates have outpaced some of the largest cities and counties in the US despite having just a fraction of the population.
Governor Edwards said the federal government has committed to 200,000 Covid-19 test kits per month, which will "get us to 43 out of every 1,000 tested each month."
He said at that rate, the state is "sufficient" enough to aim towards reopening the state's economy under the White House guidelines for reopening. it's still short of what public health officials and experts have said is enough to safely begin that process.
Trump's campaign manager to a very unhappy Trump: 'I love you, too'
Facing grim re-election prospects and unfavourable opinion polls after routinely spouting misinformation and dangerous claims at his daily coronavirus White House briefings, on which his aides have hit pause, Donald Trump has reportedly been stewing and blaming his staff for the state of his term.
After being presented with polling data showing him trailing behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden, he reportedly lashed out at and threatened to sue his campaign manager Brad Parscale, who replied: "I love you, too."
According to The New York Times, his staff have also tried showing him more-favourable poll results.
We're closing today's live coverage of the Trump administration and coronavirus response.
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