Trump holds press briefing | 8/4/20
He begin by sending, america's, deepest, sympathies. To the people of lebanon. Where, reports, indicate, that, many. Many people were killed. Hundreds, more were very badly wounded, in a large explosion. In beirut. Our prayers go out to all the victims, and their families, the united states stands. Ready to assist lebanon. A very good relationship. With the people of lebanon, and we will be there to help. It looks like a terrible. Attack. I also want to provide the latest, on. Tropical, storm. Isis. Approximately. 600, 000. Are without power, along the east coast. And utility, companies are working around the clock to restore, service, as quickly as possible, i spoke to governor cooper, i spoke to. Governor, desantis. And, i spoke to. All of the people at fema. And they're working, very hard coastal, areas, and the storms. Path, can, expect to see the storm surge, and. Rip currents, while, inland areas, could see flooding. And very very high winds. Fema, is responding. To states that have requested, the assistance, we have a list of those states we can give them to you in a little while and, my administration. Is, monitoring, the situation, very closely. We have, the military, on guard but we have. Fema is there in all cases. Corps of engineer, is ready if needed. The army corps of engineers. Very talented, people, i urge everyone in the storm's, path to remain alert. And to follow the guidance, of your state and local, authorities. I now want to, update, you on the. Path forward having to do with the china virus. Before i do that i want to give you some numbers. Which are, rather, spectacular. That just came out. The manufacturing. Index, of, the institute, for, supply, management, that's ism, most of you know it by ism, increased. For the third month in a row rising nearly two points in july to 54.2. That was fantastic. The highest, reading, since. March of, 2019.. This is remarkable. Considering, the survey was conducted, throughout july, and, showed significant, improvement despite, the southwest. In particular. Virus, hot spots. The ism, measures. And. It's a very strong, measure. Of new orders rose five points in july, to. 61.5. And its highest. Reading that would be since september. Of 2018. That's big number. Since the april low new orders are up over 34, points. Which is the largest, increase, in the history. Of the ism, dating back all the way to 1948. So. 34, points that's the largest, since, 1948.. Similarly. The ism's. Measure, of, production, is up 35, points from its april low. To a reading of. 62.1. Which is the largest, three-month, gain. In over 70, years. At some. Some number. These were. Somewhat, surprising. But i've been saying we're doing, well and.
Those Numbers are really spectacular. Automobile, sales likewise. Are a key factor, in the resurgence, of manufacturing. Since the march. Low of 8.8. Million units. With. Sales, and. All of. The, numbers, that are, going up stunningly. It's 65, percent increase. Since then. To, 14.5. Million units which is a. A. Massive, number. The. Great strength, and great. News is really. For states like in particular, michigan, and ohio, south carolina. Pennsylvania. Very good. Florida. A little bit, these are great numbers. Record setting numbers the strength in new car sales is also evident in the used car market where, soaring, demand, literally, soaring demand is putting upward pressure on. The used car prices. This is a, leading indicator. Of the, motor, vehicle, industry. The. Need to restock, depleted, shelves. Will further, galvanize, the factory, sector, and we think very substantially. Based on the numbers. We're very. Very happy with these numbers and i think most people are. Anywhere from surprise, to shocked, by these numbers. In a very positive, way, economy-wide. Inventories. Crashed. At a near, 320. Billion. Annualized. Rate last quarter. Crash in that case means a good thing. Not a bad thing, that's the largest. Drop, ever on record, ever. Homebuilder, sentiment, likewise, is soaring, as, our home, sale sentiment, is now higher than. Last year in new homes, recently, made a, 13-year. High so we have a 13. Year high in, new home new home construction. New business, applications. Are very strong, that just came out, the widely followed. Atlanta, fed, gdp. And that's uh. Something that they, have just come out with now, forecasts. The. New data, point and incorporates, it into, quarterly, estimates, it looks like it's showing. A 20. Annualized. Growth. In the current quarter. So 20. In the current quarter we'll take that. All day long let's see if that's right that's a projection. So we'll see if that's right the atlanta fed very respected. The. Virus. Back to that. We are continuing, to monitor. And. Monitor, particular, hot spots, across, the south, southwest. And the west. And we're seeing indications. That our strong mitigation. Efforts are working. Very well actually, especially. To, protect those who are, most at risk which has really been our primary, focus. For. Ever since we've gotten to understand, this, horrible. Horrible. Plague that's been unleashed, in our country by china. As of yesterday, cases, are declining. In 70 percent of the jurisdictions. Compared, to 36, percent. Last monday that's a big big. Number. 11, out of 13, states. With the. Positive, rate above. 10 percent, have seen a decline, in daily cases since mid-july. In other states the data suggests, that the, need for continuing. Vigilance. Always is strong even though the numbers are getting. Very good states that have. A test positivity. Rate between, five and ten percent. And in the states with the lowest positivity. Rates we also see. Slight increases. In, daily. Cases, and a couple of them. We must ensure, that these states, did not become, new flare-ups, so we're watching them very very closely, fortunately, thanks to. Substantial. Improvements, in treatment, and the knowledge we have gained about the disease, itself the recent rise. In cases, has not been, accompanied, by a, significant, increase, in deaths. Fatalities. Nationwide. Are. At roughly, half the level. Of the april peak, so. The, death. The number of deaths or fatalities. Are, at half. The level. One is too much. One death because this should have never happened to us it should have been stopped, it. Very easily by china. In wuhan. Thanks to our. Major advances, in treatment we've seen vast improvements, in recovery, rates across, all age groups compared to april. Mortality, rates are 85. Percent, lower among individuals. Aged, 18, to 69. And 70. Lower among individuals. Over 70, years old. We've also made significant, strides, in sheltering, those at highest, risk especially. The elderly. Approximately. 85, percent. Of all current cases, are individuals. Under the age of 65.. Just getting some very accurate, numbers on this. And these are people who are generally, at a much lower risk of, complications. Since the pandemic, began, nearly half of all fatalities. Have been at, nursing homes or assisted. Living, centers, that's an incredible, statistic, when you hear that number. This data, underscores. That the best path forward. Is an aggressive, strategy, focused, on protecting, americans, at highest, risk. As we, race toward the development, of a vaccine.
We Must continue, to take extraordinary, precautions, to shield the elderly. And we're doing that we're doing that at a level that we've never even. Dreamt, possible, both with testing, and with common sense. And those with. Underlining. Conditions, especially, the elderly, with the underlining, whether it's heart. Or diabetes, they seem to be the two. Most, predominant, conditions, that cause tremendous, problems. While allowing, those at lowest risk to carefully, return, to work and to school. Where, embers, flare up, we must engage, immediately, and that's what we're doing, this is the. Science-based. Approach, and, that's, good with us. Working very hard on that, an extended, lockdown, would fail to, target, resources. At the highest risk populations. While inflicting, massive. Economic. Pain, long-lasting. Damage. On society, and public health, as a whole. So there won't be lockdowns, but we watch. A specific, areas we're very careful, and we're putting out, embers, we're putting out flames. When you look at what's happening with. Miami. And, it's going. The numbers, are going down but florida's, going down very significantly. Texas, and california, are going down. Rather significantly. On telemedicine. As we discussed the last time as. And as i said uh. Numerous times during this day it's an incredible, thing that's happening a central part of our effort. To protect the elderly, is to greatly expand, access to telehealth. So seniors, can be treated from the safety of their homes. And that's what's happening the number of. Medicare, beneficiaries. Using telehealth, increase, from roughly. 14, 000 a week, to nearly, 1.7. Million so from 14, 000 to 1.7. Million per week in total. 10 million medicare, beneficiaries. Of access, telehealth, services. Since the pandemic. Began. That's a tremendous, thing that's happened with telehealth. As we shelter, those at high risk we are also pouring every resource. At our disposal, into the development, of therapies, and vaccines. Two vaccine, candidates, are currently, in the final stage of clinical, trials. With several more vaccine, candidates. Entering, phase three. In the coming weeks and you've, read and seen what's happened today today's news was very exciting. Through operation, warp speed. We're also mass producing, all of the most promising, vaccine, candidates, and we're determined to have a vaccine. Very quickly we think we're going to have something very soon. We have great companies these are the among the greatest companies, in the world. But right now they don't like me so much because. I'm forcing them to drop. Drug prices. Prescription, drug prices. Very massively. Some of these companies are involved in that some of them are. We're having uh. A tremendous. You'll see a tremendous, drop in price we're using favorite nations we're using the rebates, we're using, everything. So long i've heard about how. Wealthy the middlemen, are they call them the middlemen. And uh they are very wealthy nobody, even knows who they are but they're very wealthy people. And we're doing the rebates, we're doing, purchases. From other countries. Like canada. Which buys drugs for much less money than the united, states is allowed to under. A very. Bad system. I don't call it archaic, i call it bad, because it's, meant really for drug companies, to get higher prices. But. Under. Under the. System of matching, that we have if germany. Has a pill for 10 cents and ours is two dollars. We're allowed to say. We want favorite nations, and we want the pill for the same the same as the lowest country in the world if they sell to one country lower than, anybody, else that's the price we're going to get, drug companies aren't too happy about that big pharma. We've, also dramatically, accelerated. The availability. Of plasma, therapies. Steroid, treatments, antivirals. And, other therapies, to treat the illness. Today the nih. We're very exciting, announced that, they're beginning the trial of two new antibody. Treatments, which will. Take place in 40 cities across the country we're going to move, move very quickly. Results, look very good already incredible, results, more than. 230. Clinical, trials for potential, treatments are underway, and we've.
Secured, 500. 000. Courses, of treatment. For. Rem deservier. Of remdessevier. We're really, doing a job with it and it's helping a lot of people that's why you see. The fatalities. And mortality. Numbers, looking very good. Relatively, speaking. That is. But that's for american, hospitals, through the month of september, so we have rem de sevier. At a very high level. For hospitals, through the month of september, that's big. News. The united states also is far and away the most robust, testing capacity, in the world, testing has been incredible, what we've been able to do nobody's, even close. Since march 12th, we've increased daily testing, by. 32. 000. How's that 32, 000. Somebody would say that must be a typo, it's not a typo, 32, 000. We now have conducted, over 61, million tests nationwide. Averaging, over. 820. 000 tests per day and nearly 5 million tests per week and now that we're understanding. The virus, we're understanding. Very much what we're doing, with respect, to, who it affects who it's. Destroying. And who gets away with it like young people very young people. We'll be having some interesting, statements, having to do with testing and focus testing i call it focus testing. By comparison. Mexico. So we're doing. Numbers that are incredible. But by comparison. Uh mexico. As you know the president was here is a great guy but their their numbers, are much different they do about one million tests france, has done. 2.9. Million tests canada is around the 4 million mark. Australia, is around the 4 million mark the united, states is testing more people in a single week than. In many cases. Large, segments, or large, well-known, countries, all put together. It's been. An amazing, achievement, the testing and the quality, of the testing, also. And now we're doing testing where you can have results, in five minutes. Seven minutes and 15, minutes. As opposed to waiting to come back from labs for it to come back from labs over the last several weeks. Hhs. Has opened surging. Testing. Sites in, baton rouge. New orleans. Phoenix miami, jacksonville. Florida. Mcallen, texas, bakersfield. California. And this week we're opening, new, surge sites in houston, texas. Atlanta. To date, more than 130. 000 tests have been conducted, at these sites. Last week the fda, also authorized, the first two tests that display. An estimated, quantity of antibodies. Present, in the individual's, blood which is a big deal allowing, us to learn more about, the immune, response. Fema and hhs. Has worked with the private sector to deliver. More than we have new numbers more than 200, million, n95. Masks. 855. Million surgical, masks. 36, million goggles. And face shields. 364. Million gowns and coveralls, and 21. Billion, gloves billion. Can you believe that billion gloves. And we distribute, that to the governors. Different states, and. When we get on the phone with them they're very happy that i can tell you no no complaints, from any of them. They're very very happy. What they say to you separately. Maybe will change for political, reasons but they are very happy with the job we've done. In our national, stockpile, we've tripled the number of n95. Masks, on hand. To more than 40 million triple the number of gowns, to 15, million and quadruple, the number of ventilators. To nearly, 70, thousand. These numbers are growing, every day and we're now making, thousands, of ventilators. Many thousands, of ventilators. A month and. We're getting them to other countries who are desperately, in need of ventilators, they're very hard to produce, and very complicated.
Machines. So we're, we're fully, stocked, here, and we've made sure that every state is fully stocked. But we're getting them to a lot of countries, that need help. We'll continue, to work with the governors, and local authorities, to help them, ensure significant, hospital, capacity. Protective, equipment, supplies, and medicine. I'm more confident than ever that we will get a vaccine, very soon and we will defeat the virus, and, i want to thank you all for being here we'll take a few questions. Yeah please. I wanted to ask you about kodak, you had a big announcement, the other day about getting kodak, into the, pharmaceutical. Business. But the sec, is now investigating. What happened. Can you say a word or two whether you think that there might have been some kind of a problem. Uh in terms of how those arrangements, were made is there any grounds. For. Concern. From your perspective. No i don't know i wasn't involved in the deal the concept, of the deal is good but i'll let you know we'll we'll do a little study on that we'll find out if there's, if there is any problem we'll let you know about it very quickly but, uh i wasn't involved, in it uh. It's a big deal it's a way of bringing back a great area too in addition, to. Pharmaceuticals. Kodak, has been a great name but obviously, pretty much in a different business. And so we'll see what that's all about but we'll we'll let you know very quickly yeah please, um i just want to follow up before i ask a coronavirus. Question, on lebanon. You called this an attack. Are you confident, that this was an attack and not an accident. Well it would seem like it based on the explosion, i've met with, some of our great generals, and they just seemed to feel that it was this was not. A. Some kind of a. Manufacturing. Explosion, type of event, this was a. Seems to be according to them they would know better than i would but they seem to think it was a, attack. It was a bomb of some kind yes, interesting. And on coronavirus. You've talked a lot about when you talk about the mortality, rate, the deaths as a proportion, of cases which, i understand that is significant, when you look at. How deadly the virus is or how good a country does at keeping people alive who get infected. But when you're talking about the scope of this virus. When you look at the, percentage, of the population, that's died. There's only three countries, that have more deaths than the us. So how do you explain, that that why the percentage, of the population, has died, is so much higher in the us, well i think actually the numbers, are lower than others i'll get back to you on that but we proportionately. Are lower than almost, all countries we're at the bottom of the list. And we're uh, relative to cases, also we're at the bottom of the list which is a good thing being at the bottom of the list, but i can get back to you we have about four or five different lists on that, and we're generally, speaking at the very bottom of the list so i'll get back to you when i look at the johns hopkins. Uh you know. Chronovirus. Resource center, on their website, it says the most affected countries. When you look at deaths for a hundred thousand people the population, so how many people the population, have died. You have the uk, peru, chile, and then the us. Um you know canada, has, eight thousand nine thousand deaths obviously they're smaller, than us but, that's only six percent, of the population. Uh, you know that. That's six percent of our total cases so why aren't the deaths so much higher than the last of our numbers were based on the new york had a very tough time as you know new york new jersey that area. And when you take them out uh just as an example, take a look at florida relative, to new york.
That's Not to say. Anything wrong with new york it's just a very tough place, people are close together it's crowded, it's uh. It's not easy, but when you take that out our numbers are among the lowest, and even with it in i will get back to you but we have among the lowest numbers they've done a fantastic, job on it. Yes mr president, i would like to ask a question about the election, but one thing on unemployment. First. Are you considering. Taking executive. Action. To extend, or, rather reinstate, the unemployment, benefits, that expired, last week if congress can't get a deal by the end of the week, and as a general point, what rate then, would you want in there a percentage, or flat rate, we are looking at it we're also looking at. A. Various, other things that i'm allowed to do under the system. And. Such as the, payroll, tax, suspension. And so we're allowed to do things we're talking with the democrats, they seem to be much more interested, in, solving the problems, of some of the democrat-run. States and cities that have. Suffered. Greatly. Through. Bad management, i mean really bad management, so, that seems to be where they're looking for a trillion dollars. To, help out with cities that are run by democrats. In some case radical, left democrats. That have not done a good job i appreciate today the wall street journal said very good things that, we did a great job in portland, by having our. People go in homeland security, chad wolfe and folks we went into. Portland, and we've done a great job and they had that in an editorial, that we, that we really won that situation. But we want the whole we we did save the courthouse, the courthouse was going to be, burned down or knocked down it was in tremendous. Danger we went in we took care of it. And we appreciated, what the, wall street journal said. As far as the various. Things that i may or may not sign. I may not have to sign. I mean progress is being made as you know very well in the hill we'll see what happens. But i have the right including, the payroll tax suspension. We may do some things, we want to take care of the eviction, problem people are being evicted, very unfairly, it's not their fault. It's china's fault it's not their fault. And people are being evicted, and we can do that with an executive, order so if we don't get, and we want to do it relatively, quickly i mean even from the standpoint, of. Covid. Uh people get evicted and then they go into shelters, and there are thousands, of people in the shelters, and this is not a time, you never want to be in a shelter but this is not a time to be in a shelter with a covet. They catch it they get it and it's no good. So i may have to do something on evictions, too because the democrats, amazingly, don't want to do it we offer them short-term, deals and, we offer them lots of alternatives. But so far. The only thing they really want to do is bail out states that have been poorly managed, by democrats. Okay and if i put on the election, sir, can i present trump on the uh the sale of tick tock you're basically, arguing that the u.s government is going to collect. A cut from attack of a transaction, including, two companies. In which it doesn't hold a stage in, that's unprecedented, that's never happened in u.s history before and the administration, has offered very little explanation.
About, How that's going to work, can you back your statement up and provide specifics. About how do you say that's impressive, did you actually use that term, i said it's unprecedented. Well it's almost the same thing, not quite. I like it i like impressive, i like it impressive. Not quite. Close. So tic tac. Tic tock is very successful. It does tremendous, business in the united states, people are riveted, by it i mean i have many friends when they saw that announcement, they're calling. I think their, kids love it they don't. Because they don't get to see their kids anymore but they are it's it's an amazing. Thing whatever it may be and uh. I told microsoft. And frankly, others if they want to do it. If they make a deal for. Tick tock whether it's the 30 percent, in the united, states or the whole company. I say it's okay, but. If you do that we're really making it possible, because we're letting you. Operate here so the united states treasury would have to benefit, also, not just the. Not just the sellers, and i said, inform. Very simple i mean we have. We have all the cards, because without us you can't come into the united, states it's like if you're a landlord you have a tenant. The tenant's business. Needs, a rent it needs a lease. And, so what i said to them is, whatever. The price is a very big proportion, of that price would have to go to the treasury, of the united states and they understood that and actually, they, agreed with me i mean i think they agreed with me very much, yeah please. Thank you thank you sir so that deal may or may not happen we've, given them until september, 15th, or so. And we'll see, if we can have it and if there can be great security, meaning, the obvious security. Microsoft, would be a company that would be good in that respect, or approved in that respect at many levels including working with. The department, of defense, and you know they're very high level approvals. So it would be good but there are other companies, also. Yes protected, sir and, you or the anyone in the administration, reached out to other companies, aside from microsoft. To. See if they're interested, we've had other companies, call us, microsoft, called, me. Directly. And. We've had other companies, call i don't know where they are it sounds like microsoft, is along the way of doing something. Uh, i don't blame them it'd be you know it's a great company it's really a great company but. We cannot take the security, risks, of any of those companies. Including, huawei which as you know we put a halt to. But we can't take the security, risk i think our, attitude, on china has changed greatly, since the. China virus hit us i think it changed greatly, it hit the world and it shouldn't have they should have been able to stop it so. Uh. We feel differently, i just don't know when you lose when you lose. So many thousands, of people. And you know, ultimately, it'll be millions of people around the world. Uh, it's a terrible thing that happened to. The united, states and europe, and the entire world, really a terrible, thing. Yes please. President i have two quick questions one on the fire someone on policing, on, the virus, you said recently that there can be too much testing, can you explain.
What The downside, would be from testing, too many americans to the virus, and why you haven't provided. A date by which. All americans might have the same kind of testing that we have here at the white house. Well we do more testing than anybody in the world as i explained and i don't mean just a little bit if you look at india they're, at about 11 million and we're at 61, million. And, there comes a point when you just you you want to focus your testing in a different way, and we'll be announcing, some what we've done is incredible with the testing not only the testing. Not only the number of tests but also very importantly the quality of the test and the machinery, itself to do the testing. Nobody thought it would be possible to, get a 5 minute and a 15 minute result. That's a very accurate result, and we do with abbott abbott laboratories, has done a great job many of these companies have done an incredible, job. So we're looking at that very strongly, and we're looking at. Uh. Doing something that if we do if we do it look. Right now what the testing is doing, is helpful. But we're, spending, massive, amounts. Of money and we want to have it, we want to have it channeled very accurately, we want to be able to help the most people we can. But we are, testing at a level that no country, in the world and, i've spoken to the leaders of the world and they'll ask me about it, no country in the world thought it would be it's even believable, that we're able to test, so much. 61, million versus, you know most countries don't even test you know when they test when somebody's feeling badly. If somebody's, feeling badly they're symptomatic. That's when they test. And that's a big difference with us we go around and looking, because. If we find we find spots, we find hot spots. One problem, is uh from the standpoint. Of uh the media. We end up with far more cases, than we would normally, show, so it's you know as i called it the other day and. A statement i said it's called media gold, you know for the media it's gold. But the truth is it's uh. We've done an incredible, job in testing nobody in the world has done the job other leaders have told me the same thing they can't believe we're able to do it. And, and we will continue, but we want to really be able to test very specifically. The people that are in most, danger, most in need. Thank you mr president, i wanted to ask you. First about. What you tweeted out earlier today in regards, to florida. And your comfortableness. As it relates to male invalids, for florida. Why does that apply to florida, and it doesn't apply. To male invaliding, across the country so florida's got a great republican. Governor. And it had a great republican, governor, it's got, ron desantis. Rick scott two great governors. And over, a long period of time. They've been able to get the. Absentee, ballots. Done, extremely, professionally. Florida is different from other states, i mean in, nevada, where you have a governor he said let's just send out millions of ballots and the post office cannot be prepared i haven't spoken to the post office about it but i don't know how they could possibly, be prepared. Florida, has been working on this for years. And they have a very good system, of, mail-in.
And That would be, absentee. Or even beyond absentee, so in the case of florida, there aren't too many people that would qualify. They're so. Well-run. Florida is a very well-run, state low taxes, low everything. They've done a great job really a great job and the two governors, between the both of them they've really got a great system, of absentee. Ballots, and. Even, even in the case of mail-in ballots. The. Postal services, are built up there you know it takes a long time, when you look at the carolyn, maloney. Election, i think they and i'll give you the story i think you have to do that election over that election is no good, you have to take a look in new york. They have thousands, of ballots they don't know what happened to them, is there fraud, is there it's a disaster, that's only for a, relatively, small. Number, of. Ballots. But i think they have to do the election in new york over the times wrote a big story about it yesterday. Front page story it's a disaster, it's a mess. And they have to do that i think they have to do that election over nobody can know what the election, result is, so, in the case of florida they've done a great job. They've had tremendous, success, with it but they've been doing this over many years and they've made it really terrific so for florida. You can mail in your ballots you don't have to go. In maybe a couple of other states they've worked out a system. But this took years to do, this doesn't take weeks or months in the case of nevada, they're going to be voting in a matter of weeks, and, you can't do that i can't imagine, the post office could do it all of a sudden they're supposed to be dealing in millions of ballots. But florida's, done a great job and we have total confidence, that if you mail in your ballot in florida, it's going to matter. Thank you all very much thank you, thank you. What about in other states. Would you encourage voters in other states to. Request.
2020-08-09 00:31
