And thisgood friday sunday, millions of christians celebrate easter and the resurrection of jesus christ. Thatis holy time, we pray god will heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken and bless our heroes. As American Families look forward to easter, we are reminded that our story ends not in despair, but in triumph and renewal. It . Appropriate, isnt i would like to provide americans an update on our ongoing efforts in the war against the invisible enemy. Before i do that, i have a couple of notes. The United States in discussions last night with mexico, saudi arabia, russia and dealing with opec nations, we are trying to get mexico, as the expression goes, over the barrel. Doingico is committing to 100,000 fewer barrels and the president and i spoke last night. We have a great relationship and great friendship, they are helping is very much at the border. They have 27,000 mexican soldiers on our borders right now, stopping people from coming into our country as the wall goes up. We are up to about 106 t eight miles of wall. In speaking with the president , they have a limit. The opec nations have agreed to a different limit, the reduction of about 23 . What i thought i would do i dont know that it will be acceptable, the United States will help mexico along and they will reimburse us some time at a later date when they are prepared to do so. We had a great conversation but we will find out how that all works out. As you know, they are trying to get rid of the glut of oil. We dont want anything to hurt our incredible industry, we are the largest producer in the world now so we dont want anything to hurt those jobs, those great jobs in texas and north dakota and oklahoma and everywhere. Energy a tremendous business and we want to keep those jobs. We are working on it and eventually it will work out. It may work out quicker than what most people thought possible and maybe it wont but it will work out eventually. Our experts, our monitoring the data from every part of our country having to do with the topic we are here to discuss. In the midst of grief and pain, we are seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives. Tremendous progress is being made although when you look at some of the numbers, just spoke with Governor Cuomo, we had a good talk, when you look at those numbers, the numbers of died, people who have its horrible. On the others, you have the used are beds being substantially reduced. Thats usually a sign its heading in a downward curve. So, new york we know where that is but in the midst of all this grief and pain, we are seeing these signs and seeing them very strongly. A lot of that has to do with the aggressive strategy in saving so many lives. We are saving so many lives compared to what it could have been. Isody knows what the number but we had a number of 100,000 lives, as many as that is, its impossible to think of it. And that was the low end with a tremendous amount of work and a , you can callunt in many Different Things our people had to be extremely strong and brave to be able to put up with what they have put up with. This social every othernd aspect i think i can say 90 or more were able to do it. The minimum number was 100,000 lives and i think we will be substantially under that number. Hard to believe that if you had 60,000, you can never be happy. But thats a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking. And said between 100000 200,000 side and up to 2. 2 million lives if we did nothing. Resolved a tremendous by the people of this country. We will see what it ends up being but it looks like we are headed to a number substantially below the 100,000 which would be the low mark. I hope that bears out. The situation in detroit and new orleans appears to be stabilizing. Starting to goly up and now it is stabilizing and a great place, i have so many friends there, they cannot believe what is happening, but it has stabilized. I spoke with the governor of louisiana and, as you know, we are building them additional beds now, the army corps of engineers and fema. That is going to be done and i hope they will not be very well used. I dont think they will need them or certainly not very many of them. We built them in a big hospital of 1000 beds and now we are in the midst of doing another 1000. I dont think they will be using very many of them and thats a good thing. Two weeks ago, we said that would not be enough and we would build more but we wanted to wait and see and im glad we waited. It looks like they are doing really well. Louisiana and the state of michigan is doing much better than we thought. Washington state, we have made enough progress that the governor is now able to return in Army Field Hospital so we will take that hospital. We dont think we need any more hospitals. We built thousands of beds all over the country. Are probably not going to need that hospital but if we do, we can move it to another location in new york. We see hospital admissions declining substantially. Nationwide, the number of new cases per day is flattening substantially, suggesting we are near the peak and our comprehensive strategy is working. Over time, or guidelines to slow the spread are decreasing the rate of new cases substantially and we and it admissions. We are seeing that. It is incredible. With no exceptions it is looking like it is low. That is because of the people doing what they had to do, great people. Working with elected representatives and the doctors, nurses, everybody. Just everybody. Everybody has been so amazing. I was told this morning please mention all those people working in the Grocery Stores, and it is true. The checkouts and the clerks and the people a number of those people have become infected. We want to thank them. A shout out to them. With the tireless devotion of american doctors and nurses and all the medical people we have capped our fatality rate kept our fatality rate very low compared to other countries. My administration is monitoring the data on the impact on our cherished africanamerican communities because they have been hit hard. The Surgeon General will be sharing more information right after we are finished here. He will be coming up and saying exactly what is happening. It is really very troublesome. I will tell you that. I would like to provide clarity on the important point for Many Americans on elective surgeries. We have asked hospitals to cancel surgeries and procedures that do not take place at this time, just not to do them now. Delaysny treatments and treatments remain between the patient and their doctor. We are not advising to postpone medical treatment their doctor believes should occur now. Different kinds of surgery, obviously, but we are getting to the point where you can start to think about doing that surgery if necessary pretty soon. Yesterday i directed secretary of agricultural sonny perdue tax with i aid to American Farmers expedite aid to American Farmers. He will be using all the tools at his disposal to develop a program and quickly of at least 60 billion to provide relief for farmers, ranchers and producers impacted by the coronavirus. And this time of crisis we must keep our supply chains moving from the beginning, right from beginning to end. We are committed to supporting the amazing men and women who produce supply. I did a statement on social i asked thesaid secretary to expedite help to our farmers, especially to the smaller farmers who are badly hurting right now. I expect secretary purdue to use all the funds and authorities at his disposal to make sure our food supply is stable and safe and are great farmers are prosperous and continue to be prosperous. We are working hard to make sure our Food Supply Chain is sound and plentiful. We all know that begins with our farmers, cattleman, ranchers and producers. We are working with these farmers, the big farmers, the cattleman, the ranchers, all the producers. We will take care of them. We have a lot of money that was put there three our use of tariffs and other means through our use of tariffs and other means. I have been helping our farmers for a couple of years. They were targeted by china and others. I think they are very grateful for what we have done. On the medical front, the fda has issued 47 emergency use authorizations for advancements in testing. New ventilator designs, innovations and personal protective equipment, and experiment old medicines and dr. Will be talking about that. We cut through the red tape to give doctors and patients unprecedented freedom to make their own health care decisions. Granting access to potential therapies and drugs. Since monday, we have deployed two major shipments of hydroxychloroquine from the National Stockpile going to various cities. Disposing and getting as quickly as we can portions of it to the department of Veterans Affairs and the department of defense. Speaking of the department of defense, they will be sending us 10 million n95 masks. We are in great shape with ventilators, with protective clothing. We have additional plane loads coming in. We are not getting any calls from governors at this moment. I can speak for Vice President pence who will be talking in a little while. We are getting very few calls from governors or anybody else needing anything. They are in great shape for the surge that is coming in certain areas in particular. Thats a good job. They have done a great job. Iappreciate that appreciate that. More than 2 million coronavirus tests have been completed. We are conducting approximately 100,000 more every day. We are working to bring bloodbased tests to the market as quickly as possible so americans can determine whether or not they have already had the virus and potentially have immunity. They have immunity if they have had the virus. A lot of them dont even know if it they headed. The Prime Minister seems to be doing well now, i hope. He had a rough go of it, and still is but he is doing better. Some people dont even know they had it. It could be snuffles. They dont feel perfect, but they have had it. They are the lucky ones. The nih, cdc and fda are validating these Antibody Tests to ensure they are accurate and they are doing it at breakneck speed. We will get them approved very quickly. Validated, we are confident it will scale up to tens of millions of tests very quickly. We are leading the world now in testing by far and we will keep it that way. Other countries are coming to us and they want to know about our tests. Can they buy the in all make that soon position to make that possible. We will have an announcement on the World Health Organization sometime next week. We give them approximately 500 million a year. We will be talking about that subject next week. We will have a lot to say about it. We will hold it. Every american should be proud of what our country has achieved in just a short period of time. The military has deployed thousands of personnel to build 23 temporary hospitals with more than 16,000 beds. We have potential to build many more if we needed them. We are ready to go but i dont think we will need them, which is great news. We built those hospitals in 12 states and the District Of Columbia using the defense production act. We used it like a hammer. A lot of the media said we were not using it. We are using it like a hammer to saidint where we the word and everybody gave us max. They really have done a job with a few exceptions. We harnessed the full power of american industry to reduce ventilators and other essential supplies. Right now we are making thousands of ventilators, many of which we wont need. We will use them in the stockpile. We will build that up. We will help build up the stockpiles, which they should have had in the states. We are working with governors on that and also help other countries. Countries are calling us for help. They need ventilators. They are in no position to build ventilators. We are. We have ford and General Motors and Many Companies building ventilators. At ae going to be helping nottoodistant point. We will be helping quite a few countries. We have launched project air bridge to deliver nearly 300 million pieces of personal protective equipment from and around the globe. Out 60 shipping sterilization systems to 10 cities that can sterilize up to 80,000 masks each day. Im hearing it can go to 120,000 masks per day, certain equipment with certain additions. There is a company in ohio that makes this. Great company. I hear it is a great product. How come we have to buy so many masks . Why cant we sterilize the masks being used . The answer is you cant up to 20 times. We can take certain types of masks, the n95s in particular and sterilize them. Make them very clean up to 20 times. Thats a great thing. We passed the largest emergency Economic Relief package in American History to save the u. S. Economy and protect the american worker. This past week, which was four active days of the stock market. Today is not included. The markets are closed. In four days we had the biggest stock organ increase weve had in 50 years stock market increase in 50 years. There is a pent up demand. They want to get back. There is something good going to happen. Something very good is going to happen. We have to get back. Thisis horrible period, horrible, dark period where this monster came and worked its horrible, horrible spell over the world, 184 countries as of this morning. 184 countries. We have done well and i guess the market things we have done well because we had the biggest stock market increase we are talking four days instead of five that we had in 50 years. More than 50 years actually. The American People have launched the greatest mobilization of our Society Since world war ii, deploying every scientific, governmental, medical and military resource to defeat the virus. I want to just start then with we will answer questions later. I think we will have a lot of time today. A lot of people our office they should be for good friday. We will answer questions. I want to start with deborah birx, dr. Birx. You can go over some of the numbers we looked at and that would be great. Birx thank you for outlining how well we are doing in some areas. For those that are watching epidemic curves, thats how epidemiologist like to look at curves, you can see for the first time in the United States we are starting to level on the logarithmic phase like italy did about a week ago. This gives us great heart that not only in specific places, but we are starting to see that change. A lot of that is driven by the improvement in new york city. For a long time they were over 50 of our cases and 50 of new cases. That has dramatically changed because of the impact of what the citizens of new york and new jersey and across connecticut, and now rhode island are doing to really change the course of this pandemic. Really change the trajectory of new cases. Many statesg what and metro areas were fold anding as two fourfold increases that went back to twofold. Now they are going to eight days between the doubling rate. Watching this everyday gives us hope across the metro areas from new york and new jersey and all through denver and of course through new orleans. We still see cases occurring in the boston area and in chicago, but the rate of increase seems to be stabilizing. We really want to call out the work of the mayors of baltimore and the district and philadelphia who have brought all their Health Experts together. Working with their communities and are starting to change the curve in those areas. What we are seeing is we are united in social distancing. That has been very encouraging to all of us. It should be encouraging to the Health Care Providers on the front line, many of which are observing our americans with such dignity and respect and ensuring everybody gets optimal care. As the president noted, our mortality is significantly less than many of the other countries when you correct them for our population. That is really solely the work of our health our frontline Health Care Providers. Working with hopefully you we are incredibly proud of Public Health leaders at the city level, at the state level, at the federal level who are working together to change the course of this pandemic. Working with their citizens and communities to make these changes. The american public, who has really taken all of this to heart testate home. Last week we really asked a lot of people in the washington and baltimore areas to consolidate, not go out frequently to Grocery Stores or pharmacies. You can see that is having a huge impact. Its really about the encouraging signs that we see. As encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak. Every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday and the week before and the week before that. That is what in the end is going to take us up across the peak and down the other side. We continue to really applaud the work of california and Washington State and oregon. We are learning from all three of those states, from the Public Health officials about how they were able to keep the virus from ever becoming logarithmic. Thats an important lesson for all of us on how they did that, what the timing was in case we ever have to face this issue in the future. Thank you, mr. President. Dr. Fauci again, keeping on the theme dr. Birx mentioned, this is the end of the famous week we spoke about last weekend in which we were predicting to have happen happened. Remember this to is not the time to feel that since we have made such important advance in the success of the mitigation that we need to be pulling back at all. I was actually hearkened by the fact we have been talking about the new yorknew jerseyne and new orleans area where they have been getting spikes. I want to salute the governors of states throughout the entire United States, particularly in the central part of the country. The governors in these press conferences ive had calls over the last several days from several governors. From nebraska, iowa, south dakota, utah. I spoke with the governors of arkansas and wyoming who are really committed to making sure they dont get into the situation where they will have spikes in their state. They are doing the kind of things they dont get recognized because people dont talk about them much. We have a big country. We have 50 states. It is not only the big cities. If we pull out of this, it will be the big cities and pulling out of it in those areas that are not as densely populated. I want to give a shout out to them. They are doing an extraordinary job. Surprised, but i expected of this country. Expect it of this country. The commitment to make sure we dont have the kind of situations we have experienced unfortunately in other areas. This is very important. One other thing that i mentioned yesterday and the day before. There are a lot of candidate interventions going into Clinical Trials for those of you interested. I recommend you go to clinicaltrials. Gov and you can see the design of the clinical trial. Many are the randomized controlled trials that are the Gold Standard of how you find out whether something really is safe and effective. As the weeks and months it will probably be months. Sometime in the summer we will see which are working, which are not, and focus on those that are developing and working. I will be happy to answer questions later. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. The White House Task force has been very focused on increasing the supply of personal protective equipment for our great providers. I was one of those providers a few months ago. I can tell youve nothing is more important than making sure they have what they need. In order to increase the supply of n95 masks, the fda has worked with industry and authorized to companies who will supply machines to sterilize in masks. Fema is purchasing on behalf of the government 60 sterilization machines as mentioned by the president. They will be positioned around the country to increase the amount of supply of n95 masks. Each will be able to sterilize 80,000 masks per day. We hope to increase that further. The Vice President in the White House Task force challenged us and we responded as a team. For theevised laundering of gallons. Gowns. The guidance is on a website now at fda. There is information on how hospitals can increase supply. We are concerned that maybe hospitals might not want to do that because of regulations. I am happy to tell you we have worked on this. Certified providers and suppliers who follow fda guidance as posted on the website will be compliant with medicare and medicaid requirements. Provided guidance to manufacturers on manufacturing specifications for gowns. Typically it is plastic or other materials. This guidance, if followed, can s anded to make these gown no further regulatory red tape will be necessary. They can go into circulation. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. Good afternoon. I started off talking about the challenges that lie ahead. I want to reiterate what youve heard. Mitigation works. Definitively and quantitatively it is working and i want to say thank you to america for your efforts to help flatten the curve and save lives. At the president s direction, i met with 2000 hispanic leaders from their communities. Today the Vice President but a phone call i was on with hundreds of African American leaders, including the reverend jesse jackson, Derek Johnson of the naacp, the National Medical association and the black Nurses Association to talk about some of the Alarming Trends we are observing regarding the impact of covid19 on communities of color. You heard the stats. In new york city, hispanics represent the majority of deaths. Milwaukee county, blacks are 25 of the population and 75 of the deaths. On . Is going its alarming but not surprising people of color have a greater Chronic Health conditions. Africanamericans and native americans develop high Blood Pressure much younger. It is less likely to be under control and it does greater harm to the organs. Puerto ricans have higher rates of asthma. Black boys are three times as likely to die of asthma as their white counterparts. I have been caring right and haley my pocket for 40 years an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years. I hope showing you this shows little kids with asthma that they can grow to be Surgeon General one day. I more immediately share it so everyone knows it does not matter if you look fit or young. You are still at risk for spreading and dying from coronavirus. It is likely to make people of color less resilient to the ravages of covid19. If possible, likely, that the burden of social ills is also contributing. Social distancing and teleworking are critical. You heard dr. Birx and dr. Fauci talk about that to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Only one in five African Americans and one in six hispanics have a job that will let them work at home. They are more likely to live in multigeneral housing that creates high risk for the spread of a highly contagious disease like covid19. We tell people to wash their hands. 30 of the homes of the Navajo Nation dont have Running Water so how will they do that . Moree of color experience likely exposure to covid19 and increased complications from it. Let me be crystal clear. We dont think people of color are biologically or genetically predisposed. Predisposedially for exposure and have an higher incidence. As a Vice President share this morning, it does not have to be our nations future. We are taking steps in the pandemic to reach, protect and strengthen all communities impacted by this disease, and especially our communities of color. More details will be forthcoming. We are working as the Vice President and the cdc director laid out today on data collection, targeted outreach, and increasing financial employment, education, housing, social and Health Support so everyone has an equal chance to be healthy. I want to close all saying while your state and local Health Departments and those of us in Public Service are working day and night to help stop the spread of covid19 and protect you regardless of your color, creed or geography, i need you to know you are not helpless. Its more important in communities of color we adhere to Task Force Guidelines to slow the spread. Stay at home if possible. If you must go out, maintain six feet of distance and wear a mask for going to be within six feet of others. Wash your hands more often than you dreamed possible. Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Call your friends and family. Check in on your mother. She wants to hear from you right now. This forof mothers, do daddy, your your pop. Dmamma, your pop we need to protect those who are most vulnerable. This epidemic is a tragedy but it will be all the more tragic if we fail to recognize and address the disproportionate impact of covid19 and an array of other risk factors on communities of color. The task force is determined not to let that happen. The president , Vice President have said we will not let that happen. We cannot fix these issues overnight, but i promise we will work with your communities to quickly and meaningfully move the needle in the right direction. Nothing less than the fate of our families and friends, my family and friends depends on it. Vice president pence thank you, mr. President. Today the Coronavirus Task force president ard from the the gratitude he and i and all the reckon people feel for all the dedicated workers at fema, hhs, u. S. Public health service, fda and all those that are literally working on your behalf aroundtheclock to partner with states, to partner with local Health Officials. Mr. President , allow me to add my thanks and admiration to all the entire team here at the federal level. On this good friday we remember those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus. , ourmember their families dedicated Health Care Workers and first responders. We do well on the special day for christians across this country to remember them in our prayers. As you just heard from dr. Birx and from the experts, also a good day to remember good friday is always followed by easter sunday. There is hope. There is hope in this moment that thanks to what the American People are doing every day, adhering to the president s coronavirus guidelines for america, the fact that americans are listening to state and local leaders and putting the health of their family members and neighbors first we are getting there, america. We are making progress. Its imperative we all continue to implement all the guidance in the 30 days to slow the spread. As the Surgeon General just attested, we engaged more than 400 leaders in the Africanamerican Community today. I express my enters and for the leadership and communicating to africanamericans and other minority populations some of the unique challenges those communities face in the midst of this epidemic. Working not only studying the issue but rapidly issuing new guidance. We will be communicating that new guidance to all those great leaders. On the subject of testing and supplies, the president gave a great amount of detail. More than 2. 1 million tests have been performed. We continue to work very closely with fda and suppliers run the country to expand the ability of testing. You heard dr. Han flecked on the fact that soon we will have an Antibody Test. Americans will be able to determine whether they ever had the coronavirus. I spoke today to the governor of colorado. We have been in contact with Senator Cory Gardner about an outbreak at a particular meatpacking facility in the colorado area. At this time our team is working with the governor and working with the senator to ensure we have testing resources. There are some 14 people hospitalized, maybe 200 and 300 of the workforce has been impacted. We spoke about providing those resources this weekend. I want to encourage people in colorado that we will work to support that effort. I also want to emphasize that all the people working in food supply, from farmers to meatpackers to distributors to truckers to grocers, continue to have our gratitude as President Trump said just a moment ago. Than 5ies, more billion has been allocated to the state. National guard seven activated. Have been activated. Duty medicalctive personnel have been deployed in nine states focusing on the areas of the most significant epidemic. Completed. Have been today. Ights will arrive 54 more flights are scheduled bringing in supplies from around the world. Finally, as we go into this very special weekend, and into Easter Services, i know i speak on behalf of the president when i say how grateful we are to all of the churches that have been there, their ministries have been working under great difficulty, to continue to provide for the needs of your members. There have been through drives, phone calls, ministry has continued. We are grateful for the role on this holy week that our churches and synagogues and houses of. Orship are playing on their behalf, allow me to remind you, even if you are not in the pew this easter sunday, if you are able, it is still a good idea to give. Those ministries continue to go forward and we encourage you to continue to support them. We also want to say very respectfully to all the Church Communities around this country and all the places of worship to continue to heed the guidelines in the president s coronavirus guidelines for america. We know it is difficult and this time of your particularly, mr. President , gatherings more than 10, but we are grateful that so many churches and synagogues and places of worship have done just that and we continue to urge you to do it. To my Christian Brothers and sisters across the country, let me encourage you with the words we should all remember, that jesus said, wherever two or more are gathered, there he is also. You can worship, you can celebrate easter and know that youll be blessed in so doing, and youll be serving the nation. Thank you, mr. President. Pres. Trump great job. Thank you. Ok. It is good friday. Lets be nice, ok . Lets be real nice. Reporter can you clarify a little bit with the u. S. Offer to mexico, involving the oil deal, and can you go into detail . Pres. Trump all of the opec nations met, and they are agreeing to cut back. We are filling up our strategic reserves. We dont have room to store it. Ships tothey are using store oil, there has never been anything like this. It was being overproduced, and then you have the virus. There is a glut of oil that nobody has ever seen before. It is good in many ways. Depending on who you are, it is bad. We have a Tremendous Energy business, number one in the world. They all got together and said we are going to cut it because we had to get rid of this tremendous supply. The good news is, gasoline prices, im seeing . 90, . 85 different parts of the country, a gallon. I guess you have to go back to the 1950s. You dont remember. You are too young. The fact that you have to go a long ways back to see it. The airlines are trying to come back. Having low fuel costs is good for them. Steel manufacturing. Goes to the steel oil and engineering firms. That is a doubleedged sword. Wewant to keep our energy, want to remain independent, we will remain independent regardless. We want to get rid of this tremendous overflow. There is no place to store it. The opec nations met. I have hated opec over the years, obviously. But it broke down. We potentially have years of supply, even if they do reduce it. They agreed but mexico did not agree, one of the few. Countriesec plus, that are outside, you understand . Mexico did not agree. I understand the president very well. He had a level that he wanted to keep. The problem is, and i explained it strongly, youll be selling it for five dollars, 10 a barrel, so in the end it is bad. He had some political difficulty with it, and i understand that, too. It is a small amount for us, a large amount or mexico. For mexico. I agreed to pick up some of the slack, so he was going to reduce output by 100,000 barrels. I was going to pick up the slack , and they would make it up to us in a later date. It could be in a different form. I dont know whether or not if mexico is acceptable. I dont know if that is extensible to the other oilproducing nations. We will find out. It is something that would certainly be acceptable to me, to get it over the back. Mexico will reduce by 100,000 barrels. That would mean that they are 250,000 to 300,000 short. We would make up the difference on a later date. Reporter by cutting u. S. Production . Pres. Trump cutting some u. S. Production. U. S. Production has already been cut because oil is a marketdriven economy. They have been cutting oil all over the place. Really . S it mean it is in the ground, we can use it. We have a lot of ground with a lot of oil in it. We are probably number one, especially with anwar. One of the biggest fines anywhere in the world. When you add it all up, we are number one in the world. In a land that was rich in a lot of ways, but also rich because it has a lot of oil and gas. Lng is all over the country now at a very low price. Thecarbon, our atmosphere, level of environmental cleanliness is at its alltime best right now. Because we are using a lot of natural gas. We have many forms of energy, including some of the newer forms that people want to see us go to. A lot of different forms of energy. We are number one in the world. We are helping mexico out. Form,l be reimbursed in a sometime in the future. Reporter mr. President , ill ask about the federal projections in a moment. Today you tweeted, the invisible enemy will soon be in retreat. Given it is visible, without widespread testing, how do you know . Pres. Trump i think it will be in retreat. Buty, tomorrow, no, sometime in the distant future. Reporter how do you know without widespread testing . Pres. Trump people are not going to go to the hospital, people are not going to get sick. We are doing more testing right now than any other country in the world by far. If you want the question answered, i will have the professional answer it. Deborah, perhaps you want to come up. We are doing tremendous testing. Youll see nobody getting sick anymore. It will be gone and it will not be that long. Dr. Birx thank you, mr. President. I want to reemphasize what kind of testing we are talking about. This is rna diagnostic testing. That was the platform built to respond to this epidemic. It is the same platform that we use for hiv viral loads. Many hiv clients have also given himon these machines to have these test runs for americans. This assay is complicated. It is not like an assay that you have for your other diseases, strip test. Strep test. This requires a lot of technical oversight and is a reason why not 100 percent of machines are running at full capacity, but we had some great discussions about that. Every day, more brought online. We have to create expectations of what the daily test rate will be. Last year, we probably did 3 million hiv viral loads, formulated as a country. We have done almost 2. 2 million in four weeks. This is unprecedented in what we have to do. It is why we are working hard for two pieces. I want people to understand, testing is just part of our strategy. The other part of the strategy has to be this influenzalike illness where there is an alert to the illness, so we are surveying where we know the most vulnerable cases have appeared. The great hall that i had with the mayors and Health Officials yesterday, mayerson day mayors today, a lot of their rural areas, and in washington and california come it was at the Nursing Homes. , laser focusing a strategic approach to testing, when we know what our volumes are. They increase every day. We have to be realistic about what our volumes will be, and combine that with strategic we arelance so that testing symptomatic people and their context quickly, going back to Contact Tracing, utilizing our complete strategy. Is why the president three weeks ago really put us on getting an Antibody Test. I called from the podium for our University Colleagues and hospitals to begin a test. We wanted a fingerprint to make it easy prick to make it easy and deployable. We dont want to promise until we have a. The American People deserve that, to have a test that is efficient, to let people know who has been positive or immunity. That is critical to epidemiologists and public officials, to know what the penetrance of a virus was in a community when all youre seeing is the serious cases and testing the most symptomatic. That is a question we still have. ,s this the tip of the iceberg or half, or three quarters of the iceberg what we have seen to date . I just want to complete the thought by saying, in the areas where we had an outbreak, these large metros, louisiana, denver, detroit, chicago, new york, new jersey per capita, we have done more tests than any other place in the world. That was intentional. We focus the tests where the burden of disease was the greatest. Now we are trying to see how strategically that valuable resource can be utilized around the countries to create a mosaic of testing combined with surveillance. Dr. Birx can i ask reporter can i ask about the new federal projections . Suggesting lifting the 30day shelter in place orders would lead to a spike in infections. Seen those new projections from your department of homeland security, hhs . Pres. Trump when did they say this would take place . The 30dayn thf shelterinplace were to be removed. Pres. Trump they have not seen it. I guess they leaked it to nbc. Reporter they did not leak it to us. We will find out about it. They dont know about it. First of all, i have not seen that. I have been here all day. Reporter i am telling you what i know. Dr. Fauci i think what they are talking about, whenever you pull back, you might expect to see cases. What dr. Birx just mentioned, when you see that, that is when you want your resources to be time,o come in real identify, isolate, and contact trace. Dont let anyone get any false ideas that when we decide at a proper time when we will be relaxing some of the restrictions, there is no doubt youll see cases. I would be surprised if we did not see cases. The question is how you respond to them. Reporter the question, mr. President , should americans have to choose between staying healthy and going back to work . Pres. Trump we are going to do both, go back to work and stay healthy. Staying healthy is also a proportion. If you look at what we are doing, we are looking at a date. We hope we can fulfill a certain date and we are not doing anything until we know this country will be healthy. We dont want to go back and do it over again, even though on a smaller scale. Reporter followup on the oil question. The president of mexico said you agreed the u. S. Would cut production by 250,000 barrels a day. Is that what you agreed to . Pres. Trump which we have already done. They would agree to do something to compensate us in the future. Ok . Reporter did you make any assurances to saudi arabia that the United States would not bailout oil drillers here . Pres. Trump we did not discuss that with saudi arabia. We discussed who is opposed and who is not, and pretty much everyone is in favor of it. They are getting clobbered. If you look at saudi arabia, that is their primary source of income. They want to do it, russia wants to do it, the opec nations want to do it. We will see what happens. There is a difference between wanting to do it and doing it. Go ahead, oan. Reporter this is a National Security question back to venezuela and china. A 15 million bounty on venezuelas nicolas maduro. We had news this morning that president xi is talking with nicolas maduro, expressing his support. One, have you discussed with president xi the u. S. Policy on maduro . Two, how will this affect u. S. Policy . Pres. Trump we will not be happy if that takes place. I have not spoken to president xi about that aspect of venezuela. If that took place, we would not be happy. Ok . Reporter are you concerned that he is opening up another pres. Trump im concerned about everything. That is why i do not sleep a lot. I get myself concerned about everything, but i would not be happy about that. Reporter getting back to peters question, a variation of that question, your doctors gathered here seem to be in doubt as to whether the country could we open on may 1. If they come to you before may 1 and they say in the country, huge parts of the country are not ready to open may 1, will you listen to them . Pres. Trump i listen to them on everything. I think they are surprised. I have Great Respect for these people, and others. I have Great Respect for this group. Why dont youuci, move to new york, run against aoc. You will win easily. He decided he will not do that. I kid, you know that. Reporter some of your allies have been bashing these doctors . When you tell them to cut it out . Pres. Trump i can only tell them this, i have tremendous respect for these people. We have done well. When you compare us to others, we are indignation. When you see how we have taken having the best test that anyone has ever made, other countries wanting us to use our technology, i have Great Respect for these people. Reporter if they come back to you and say before may 1, we cannot open, do you listen . Pres. Trump i will certainly listen. Sides. Re two i understand the other side of the argument very well. I look at both sides of an argument. Im listen to them carefully. Reporter you may have seen this. With a forecast and a forecast of the gdp growth in the Second Quarter, saying a 40 decline in the Second Quarter of this year. Do your economic advisers share that view . Pres. Trump my economic advisers are interested in the Third Quarter and really the fourth quarter. We have a chance do record fourthquarter numbers. There is a tremendous pentup demand. You see it this week. What reason would there be, other than faith in us and this country, in me, youre Vice President , everybody, governors perhaps you could also add them. What reason would there be for a shortened week, four days instead of five, to have the biggest stock market gain . To me, that is a sign. For all that we have been down we have never been hit. Has this country ever been hit like this . 1917. But that was different. Frankly, europe took the brunt of it. It was a different time. Probably never been hit like this, right . I was talking with Governor Cuomo about it i was in new york city, a place i love at the new york world trade center. That was about 3000 people. We have doubled that. More than doubled, substantially more. We had our highest number yesterday, the day before. Ok. With all of this news, what would lead you to believe that we are going to have the best stock market week, shortened week, in 50 years . Almost broke the alltime record. That is spent of demand. That is my opinion. The other thing is we are doing tremendous stimulus plans. Despite what you read, back and forth, we are getting along with democrats. We have to help our workers, small businesses, we have to help our restaurants. Deductibility will be great for entertainment. I think with the stimulus, with the people, with what we have going, with all the things we will be meeting with the. Irlines over the weekend we have a great plan for the airlines. We have to keep the airlines going. Never been a great business but very vital for the country. We are meeting with boeing, a lot of companies that are Great Companies, were Great Companies a short while ago. We cannot let anything happen to boeing. It has so much potential you talk about potential. Can anything have more potential than that . We have a lot of exciting things taking place. We have tremendous plans, tremendous stimulus. I think we have a chance to do really well. So this quarter is not the courtroom looking at. Quarter im looking at. Third quarter, we start to think about it. Fourth quarter is going to be at a level that maybe we have not seen before. With all that we have been through, we have learned a lot. We have learned about pandemics, epidemics. H all that we have learned as an example, we are making ventilators. We have thousands of them being delivered in the near future. We have countries calling us, can we have ventilators . I would not know what to say, they have people dying, but we needed them for ourselves. We have plenty, before the surge. In new york, they need far fewer hospital rooms, beds in particular than we thought. Dr. Birx told me that six weeks ago. You said that number is too high, we dont need that many. Based on what she said, and others, we did what we had to do. We actually gave the maximum. We built javitz. Id. Made the ship cov nobody driving. Of cary you have a lot accidents, motorcycle accidents, people going to the hospital. We didnt have that. A lot of things have happened. I think we have a chance to be stronger than before, i really do. The stimulus is very important, what we are doing. Reporter may i ask you about credit and debt . Many americans, individuals, families have had to tap their credit cards during this period. Distances have had to draw down the credit lines businesses have been to draw down the credit lines. Are you afraid that will hobble the economy . Would you suggest to Credit Card Companies to reduce their fees in this time . Pres. Trump it is something that we have suggested, we are talking to them. Business interruption insurance. You have people when i was in private, i had Business Interruption. When my business was interrupted through hurricane or whatever it i have it,etimes sometimes i have a lot of different companies. If i have it, i expect to be paid. I speak mostly to the restaurant eurs. Paying 25, 30 years, Business Interruption, they have never needed it. I am very good at reading language. I did very good at these subjects. I dont see the word pandemic mentioned. Sometimes it is an exclusion. A lot of times i dont see reference. I would like to see the Insurance Companies pay, if it is there. They know what is fair. I know what is fair, i could tell you quickly. But Business Interruption insurance, that is getting money to a lot of people. They have been paying for years, sometimes just started begging. You have never have people asking for interruption insurance, and they have been paying for a lot of years. When they finally need it, the Insurance Companies says we are not going to give it. We cannot let that happen. On march 6, you said anyone who wants a test can get a test. Now you are saying that you would be open to reopening the government without having a National Testing system. How do you square those two statements given there are still issues with testing Going Forward . Pres. Trump there is no issue. I got it. There is not a lot of issues with testing. We go toections iowa, nebraska, and interestingly, idaho is interesting. They had a few breakouts, but they are capable states, big distances, a lot of land. You dont need testing there. Where you have a state with a small number of cases, some states with almost none. West virginia for a long time had none. When you have that, you dont need testing. You dont have to test every person in the state of iowa, as an example. You dont have to test every person to say lets open up and get the tractors moving and lets get the corn and lets open up all the Different Things they do in the great state. That being said, if there is a little hot corner someplace, we will be testing. But deborah speaks to this very well. Same thing in new york. That is what we talked to Governor Cuomo about this morning. We have the abbott test that goes very fast. Then we have a lesser test where we could talk about a larger area. So we are going to do testing, but you dont need to test 325 to 350 Million People. Number one, it is unnecessary. Country do notur need this. I think you agree with me on that. Now, we have certain hotspots. New orleans is a hotspot, new york, detroit. Then you have certain areas in certain hotspots. We are doing all of that. Remember this. We have done more testing than any other country in the world, and we have the best test. Talking about africanamerican disparities, i have a question for you and the Surgeon General. We know these Health Disparities have existed for a long time among africanamericans, latinos, people of color. Why did the administration possibly not have a plan directed at those communities, knowing that the Health Disparities were there . Pres. Trump we do have a plan. One of the things im most proud about is, one of the things that ive been able to do for the Africanamerican Community, lowest on of limit numbers in history. Before the virus came. It has been here three weeks, right . Africanamerican community had the lowest unemployment, the best employment numbers. More africanAmerican People and communities have been thriving. If you look at our opportunity zones. Tim scott, fantastic senator. Opportunity zones. More jobs for africanamericans than ever before. Better health care than they have ever had before. All of these things the Surgeon General spoke to it, brilliantly. I found it interesting what he said. I would love you to come up and answer the second part of her question. You would do a better job than i would. Reporter thank you. Quick question for you. You said africanamericans and latinos should avoid alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. You also said do it for big pop. And pop there are some people online who are already offended by that language and you are saying behaviors may lead to these death rates. Do you have a response who might be offended to the language . Ive been meeting with the naacp, National Medical association, talked with gary johnson multiple times this week , the head of the naacp. We need targeted outreach to the Africanamerican Community. I used language use in my family. I have a puerto rican brotherinlaw. I call my granddaddy, granddaddy. I have relatives who call their. Parents big momma it was not meant to be offensive. That is a language that we use. It is critically important it is not just about them. I was very clear about that it is not just about what you do, but you are also not helpless. We have do our part at the federal level, we need people to do their part. We need everyone, no matter what color you are, to follow the coronavirus guidelines, and do their part. Naacp,talked to the three weeks ago, one of the things they asked me is can you help dispel the myths in the community that people cannot get the coronavirus if they are black . That was a myth that was important for us to squash. Reporter are you recommending that all americans avoid alcohol, tobacco, drug use . Dr. Adams yes, all americans. I will clarify that. All of americas to avoid all of these substances at all times. I put out a Smoking Cessation report in january. I put out a report about youth and pregnant women using marijuana last year. Everybody needs to do everything they can to be as healthy as possible in this critical time. Pres. Trump would you like to add anything to it . You really expressed in beautifully before. Jerome, have i cannot i cannot do it any better than that. Hint testify, he made no of being offensive at all. I dont think that was it appropriate. You, trump i can tell jerome adams has done a fantastic job. I just hope that nobody steals him and leaves for a fortune. Dont leave us. And you are doing a great job. Everybody tells me that. We appreciateplease . Arerter google and apple enabling tracing on their systems. Is this something you would consider . Is it something we will look at . It is. It is new technology. It is very interesting good a lot of people worry about it in terms of we will take a strong look at it and let you know pretty soon. Reporter can you explain why it is appropriate in the middle of a pandemic to be talking about cutting or illuminating funny for the World Health Organization . Going tomp we are talk about the World Health Organization next week in great detail. I did not want to do it on good friday or before easter. I did not want it to do before we had all the facts, but over the years, we have been paying 300 million or more a year. China has been paying them less and 40 million a year, so we are paying more than 10 times one in china. And they are very, very chinacentric. China always seems to get the and i of the argument, dont like that. I really dont like that. I dont think it is appropriate or feared of the American People. And i would tell dr. President xi. I would i would tell that to president xi. We will be talking about that next week in great detail. We are looking at a very, very closely. We want to make sure money is properly spent, but again, why is the United States paying 500 million a year . That is a lot. And that is a lot, ok. Why is china paying, last year, this year, 42 million per year 42 42 million a year. At different amounts, different years. 38, 36, 35, 31. But you have to ask yourself that question. And the answer always turns out to be in chinas favor. Isnt that interesting . We have world health me of world trade we have world health and have world trade. Using soame along, many cases, it was ridiculous. And now we are winning cases. We just won 7 million because im not going to put up with it. China has been unbelievably taken advantage taking advantage of us in other countries. They are considered a developing nation. I said, make us a developing nation, too. India, a developing nation, the United States is the developed nation, but we have plenty of developing to do. Now, we are winning cases because they know that if we are not treated fairly, im going to pull out. You never heard this before because no one ever talked about the wto, but the wto has treated us unfairly. They know i will not put up with it because all of these countries are taking advantage of the United States. In the court system, we are not approving new judges over the last year. Lighthizer is working hard on that. Minorityd always a position, meaning numbers of judges. So we have a minority number of judges. How do you eat not with a minority number of judges . All of a sudden, we are how do you win with a minority number of judges . All of a sudden, we are winning. The money is pouring in and to be won other cases, too. But from covering it, i know you know that the United States was taken advantage of by the World Trade Organization. Speaking of china, if you look at the history of china, it was always since they went into the World Trade Organization that they became a rocket ship with their economy. They were flatlined for years and years. Frankly, for many, many decades. It was only when they came into the World Trade Organization that they became a rocketship because they took advantage. Im not even blaming them. Im saying how stupid were the people who stood here and allowed it to happen . But we dont allow that to happen. And they dont treat us and if they dont treat us fairly, we will leave. Now we are winning cases. Someone knew for a change. Reporter and School District are closing, floridas Governor Ron Desantis has not ruled out opening up schools in may. Saying that many kids are not vulnerable to this disease. Do you agree with that assessment, and do you believe that you would recommend the schools open up in those states pres. Trump i have a lot of faith in ron desantis to make the right decision. He has done a great job as governor. Ron desantis, i had read or he was digging about opening up the schools earlier than the end of the month. I would have to look at the numbers, but again, i would like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them. Because from a constitutional standpoint, that is the way it should be done. If i disagreed, i would overruling governor. And i have that right to do it, but i would rather have them as you can call it federalist, you can call the constitution, but, the constitution. I would rather have the make decisions, and he has made a lot of good decisions. He is thinking about it, so i will take a look at it. Reporter a followup from the doctors. If you allow children back into schools, would not pose a threat to spreading the virus even further to those vulnerable populations . Pres. Trump do you want to talk about that, maybe . Tony . I think i know the answer to that. [laughter] mean, if you have a situation in which you dont have a good control over an outbreak and you allow children to gather together, they likely will get infected, and if they get infected, the likelihood they will bring the infection home. That really is a risk. I dont know the situation in any detail, and im not specifically speaking about florida. Im speaking generically about what happens you have infections in the community, and you have congregations of people, such as in classrooms, that is a risk. [indiscernible] the governor said no one under 25 has died. Than 25 canounger die as a result of this. Dr. Fauci yes, people under 25 coronavirusom the disease in america. Thank you. Reporter if you reopen the country in may and there is a spike in infections, are you open to the idea of shedding the country down again . Are you open to the idea of shutting the country down again . Pres. Trump i am watching other countries, in many cases, they are ahead of us that hit them first. I am watching what is happening with respect to certain other countries, some of them obvious, some of them less obvious and what they are doing and the success they are having. That will play a large part of the role. We are also setting up a council of very, very doctors and business people. We will be announcing that on tuesday. Some great people. The task force . Pres. Trump i call it the opening of the Country Council, so we dont get confused with my task force, which has done some great. In it and we will have great business leaders, doctors, a great group of people. We will probably do a by teleconference because we dont really want them traveling in for their own purposes. I dont think it would look good also, but we dont want them traveling in. We will do teleconference. We did one the other day with the banks and it was very successful, the teleconference itself, and we will be announcing names on tuesday. That will play a role. Then i will have to make a decision, do we close a hotspot . I do say this, i want to get it open as soon as possible. This country was meant to be open and vibrant. Not with people staying in. I would love to open it. To dot determined anything. The facts will determine what to do, but weed but we do want to get the country i will have a council that will be announced on tuesday. But we do want to get the country open. I will have a council that will be announced on tuesday with different businesses, different people, bipartisan. I did not even ask. Honestly, i think it is bipartisan. I did not ask if you are eight republican or democrat. Hard to believe, but i did not ask. I want their views on what they think. Also, very important, different parts of the country because you go to the midwest, it is different than perhaps the east coast or the west coast. The west coast those numbers are amazing on the west coast. Very interesting. Will be announcing that in announcing that on tuesday. Reporter caribbean and latin nations, the Cayman Islands authorities are blocking the shipment of ppe in certain cases. Could you speak to that . Pres. Trump we have a tremendous naval force out there , and we are blocking the shipment of drugs. Maybe what they are doing is stopping ships that they want to look. We are not blocking. What we are doing we dont want drugs in our country. With 160 miles of wall, it is getting hard to get through the border. They use to drive through the border like they owned it. And a certain way, they did. They had Human Trafficking. They are not driving through that wall. That wallace tell. And it is loaded up with equipment that wall is tough and it is loaded up with equipment. We have drones flying back and forth over it. So, it is a very, very powerful barrier between mexico and the United States. A lot of people though, what they are doing now is trying to come through the waterways, whether it is a gulf or the ocean and sell. What we are doing is being very tough. We are being top because of drugs and also Human Trafficking, and remember, the Human Trafficking is mostly females are it is mostly females. The Human Trafficking is mostly females. It is mostly females. And it is horrible. We have a Human Trafficking problem worldwide. You think of it as an ancient thing, but it is not ancient. It is bigger than it has ever been before because of the internet. The internet made Human Trafficking to the extent that it is now, which is massive. The internet made it so big. Force have a big naval that is stopping it. So maybe when you mentioned that, maybe ships are getting caught, but we are stopping a lot of ships and we are finding a lot of drugs. Reporter on the additional business,small secretary mnuchin is speaking with the democrats in congress. New 250 billion are you willing to give antidemocratic demands on additional money for hospitals, states, and cities in that interim round . Pres. Trump i would rather that be in phase four. I think we should have infrastructure, and i think we should have a payroll tax moratorium because that is something that over a period of time, the workers get, you know, sort of semiimmediately. It is over period of time. There are a lot of people, im one of them, that would have liked to see the payroll tax cut as a permanent cut, but we should do the double edge, meaning business employee payroll tax cuts. Youre talking about that, and i am ok with helping the states and hospitals. I think the hospitals need help and we with that are talking about that and i am ok with helping the states and hospitals. Phaseooking at that in four. The plan is working out well. The banks are Getting Started with the distribution. They have taken thousands and thousands of applications. The numbers arent even believable, the number of applications. Bank of america, wells fargo, and against citibank is just now kicking in, and also nobody is talking about is the commercial banks. The Community Banks. Everyone is talking commercial banks. The Community Banks are doing tremendous volumes, and there probably doing them faster from what i understand. I heard the Community Banks are the easiest in terms of getting the money out. The money is getting out. The applications are far beyond what we anticipated. Goings why this is essentially to the workers. Among the businesses to hold onto their workers because once they lose their workers, they are never opening again. In the back. Reporter could you expand a reimbursementthe from mexico . Mentioned . Ou pres. Trump there was no real cost because we are agreed to produce a little less. It is actually cheaper than storing it where you take it out and you deliver it to a massive well, like the strategic reserves. Where it has to be brought there. That is an expensive process and itself. But oil is getting to a point where there are areas where the water is more viable than the oil. Be never thought you would seeing oil at 20 a barrel, but how about 10 a barrel . Thought that that you never thought you would see. That you never thought you would see. We have a great relationship with the restaurant we have a great relationship with mexico. The president , i really like him a lot. You dont see the caravans coming up anymore. , it wasook office unbelievable what was going on. They have been helping us a lot, and we had been helping them a lot. They may product for us, they sell it to us. It is fine. It is a Good Relationship. Sometimes, it is a great relationship. So, he could not have done any more than that. I think there were political reasons for him. That other nations dont have our they dont have that. The nations we are talking about, the 22 other nations, they dont have that problem. Us anything. T cost and yet, it is very valuable. In the be reimbursed future, may be in the near future, or the distant future, but we will be reimbursed by mexico in a certain way, and it will be fine. But we get mystical over the hump. With all of that being said, we get mexico over the hump, but with all of that being said, this is one of the stumbling blocks. Reporter china and other asntries have been active taking advantage of the u. S. During this process. China is active in the south with the carrier down. What is your message to some of these adversaries and competitors . Pres. Trump the way i view it is this. Advantage of the United States for 30 years. Ok . I mentioned the World Trade Organization. China has taken advantage of us through that, and using rules that are unfair to the United States initiative and shared have never been allowed to happen initiative and should have never been allowed to happen. When china was allowed to join under those circumstances, the World Trade Organization, that was a bad day for the United States because they had rules and regulations that were far easier than our rules and regulations. Plus, took advantage of them down to the last and you studied china and you know what i mean they took advantage of them like very few people would think to take advantage of them. They are considered a developing nation. You are not considered a developing nation. Ok . For many years, china has ripped off the United States, and then i came along, and right now as you know, china is paying 25 , and we have taken in billions and billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from china. I know a lot of the people kept saying, we are paying. We are not paying. Countries are different. Not every country is china, but, would devalue their currency import out money, and they essentially were paying most of those tariffs, not us. As you know, we have taken in billions of dollars. They targeted our farmers, but we took in so much money i was able to give back one year was 12 billion, one year was 16 billion. I was able to get back from some money they were targeted. Able to give back to 12 billion in the 16 billion to the farmers, and they were not targeted. We were all in business. Now we are doing it because i got targeted in a different way. Now, i will be interested to see. We signed a deal with china, and under that deal, they are supposed to buy substantially in excess of 200 billion from us. That is manufacturing products, lots of Different Things. They will buy a lot. Want to see if they live up to that deal. I want to see if they live up to that deal. I know president xi and i want to know if you lives up to that deal, but i never took off the tariffs. It is still 25 . 25 of 250 billion. So for the first time again, before the virus hit lets start all over again. That chapter has not been written yet buried but that chapter has not been written yet. But the deficit with the United States and china was coming way down. No one had ever seen that before, but the deficit had come way down. So now, we start a new chapter, and i can only tell you if a smart person is standing where im standing, we are going to do very well with china. Ok . And i have to also say this. I think our relationship and having the relationship i have with china is a good thing, but for the first time, we are benefiting instead of being the sucker that got taken advantage of for years. I said to china, how does this ever happen . Representatives of china at the top level, i say, how did this ever happen . They looked at me and they said, but nobody ever called us. We did not have a deal. It wasnt like we had a bad deal. We had worse. We had no deal at all. So they took advantage. Think of it 500 billion a year deficit. Not 500 million car that is a lot of money. Mean 500 million . No, i mean 500 billion year deficit with china for a long time. Billion, 3000 billion. A year deficitus with china. Now, i am charging them tariffs. It is very interesting. A lot of people dont want to do that. They all agreed because china has taken advantage of this country like nobody has ever taken. We have built china with the money we gave them. Now, i give them a lot of credit ok . I give them a lot of credit. They did it. But you know what . We made it a helluva lot easier and gave them a fortune. Go ahead. Today with am here press [indiscernible] i was wondering if you have been tested for antibodies . Pres. Trump not that i know of. I had some tests. Has anybody else been tested for antibodies . Pres. Trump that will come out. They just developed those tests. Is from this question andrew of newsweek. Boeing aid was made to in a package, but according to officials, boeing executives are still planning layoffs. [indiscernible] pres. Trump the aide has it been given yet. They have not asked yet. Boeing has not asked, but i think they probably will. Now, at the same time, they do have to read a company. They have to run a company. Lets not kid ourselves. It is not a good time right now. But boeing makes airplanes and the greatest airplanes, and the best airplanes in the world. They had a problem with one. You have to be number one in your closet m. I. T. To fly it. Every two years, they want to make it more and more. I mean, they had Great Success with the 737, the boeing 737, and then all of a sudden, they do the max, and they say lets make it more complicated and put on different engines and lets do this and that. It was not exactly a good decision. A bad decision. A horrible decision. Number one, he lives and number human livesr one, and number 2 it is probably the greatest company in the world. I think it amounts to 1 of gdp and some say it is. 5 . I think it is 1 . Boom. On top of what happened there with the two planes, and they say they have that fixed. They say they have it fixed indisputably. Someone said have it fixed undisputedly. Said this is i the safest plane in the air. That is what you should say. That is a very good statement. It is the safest airplane in the air. It is a very good statement. You should use it. By the way, your changing the name . Whether you do or not, you should use that, but hes said that but he said that. Boeing executive said it is the safest plane in the air, but they are going to need help. Does that mean they should keep the people they actually dont need . That business is a very cyclical business like many businesses, quite frankly. That determination has not been made. They have not spoken to as yet. Maybe they will not need help are that would be great. Boeing has made so much money. Who wouldve thought they wouldve built all of those planes . Who wouldve thought they could solventand their silly company, ok and they are still a solvent company, ok . Also, economically. So when they see us, making sure boeing a strong again is very, very powerful and very important and we will do what is necessary to do. Orter pres. Trump should we keep this going, everybody . You are the president. Pres. Trump you are not going to criticize me of the conference is too long . Too short, you say it is too short, if i stay to if i stay too long, you will say it is too long. Shall should be continued . Should we continue . Reporter have you had a chance yet to speak to Boris Johnson . Pres. Trump no, but i have a call to wish him well. I dont want to call him now. Want him to get better. The has become a friend i want him to get better. Beat he has become a friend. He is a tremendous guy. I think he might be 100 popularity right now. I think he is when you talk about approval polls, you ever hear that term . I hear it all the time. 300 pproval rating must be. He is a great guy. He was a great guy before and i think people have seen woody as been through his incredible parting and keep live seen what he has been through his incredible. One about Community Certificates or passports . Aboutt about kid what Community Certificates or passport . Pres. Trump we will be careful for who comes into the country. Party wantsosition open borders. This is a case where i am very glad my position is i dont want open borders. I went very strong borders. That includes not only the southern border i want very strong borders. That includes not only the southern border, but the northern border with canada. We want strong borders. This may be one of the learning points is that we learn something about borders. A country needs borders to be a great country, and i think this is a great point. Do you have Something Else . Reporter i was wondering about americans currently stuck at home if it turns out they have the disease, and therefore should be infected again, some sort of documentation that would allow them to go back to work safely . Pres. Trump once they get better . So they have the disease, they get better, and they have community. For a lifetime or for year or two. Nobody has told me if it is for a year, two years, or a lifetime. Like chickenpox. For a lifetime. I hope that is true, but nobody has told me with certainty, maybe because they dont know yet because it is new. This came upon us. Nobody knew. They do know you have it for a period of time. And it is strong for a period of time. They dont know. Sick somebody was really andy got better was really sick and he got better, relatively young person. Physically fit, you know, he got better and he made it, barely, but made it. The first thing he did when he got better was i want to get whatever i can give to other people because no one should go through it. It is a tough thing, so we dont know yet how long if you would like to add anything to it, we dont know yet is it a year . Is it more than a year . Only time will tell, ok . Reporter one more question. Governors, mayors, members of congress on the open the Country Council youre talking about . Pres. Trump i think so. I have Great Respect for governors mobile republican and democrat. I have become friends with some of the democrat governors that i had that i would not have had the privilege of getting to know. Governor murphy of new jersey is a very liberal guy. Im not, but we have had a great relationship. Know, i call you them john bell, John Bel Edwards , a cool name, from louisiana, i have a very Good Relationship with him. Thinknewsom, honestly, i we fighting right now. I want automobiles to be made cheaper and safer and stronger. You save 3000 to 4000 per automobile. Were fighting on a lot of Different Things. The ones open borders and i want he wants open borders and i come into the country legally. I have gotten friendly with gavin newsom. Governor cuomo of new york. We talk all the time. I just talked to him before walking in here. Developed i have really developed a lot of Good Relationships with governors. Mike dewine has done a great job in ohio. So yeah, i want to put on both parties. One have some governors. I have all the governors i dont know about all the governors. But i would like to do that. Yes. R, everyone has said i think everyone would like to be on that council. It is a very important council. Go ahead in the back. Reporter thank you. Those have a message to pastors who are still planning , defineEaster Services the public distancing guidelines . For those pastors who are plagued have Easter Services pres. Trump ok. You have a very nice boys, but it is low and you are far you have a very nice voice, but it is low and you are far back. I have talked to many pastors, and many of them agree it is a very complex subject. Most of the pastors agree that they are better off doing what they are doing, which is distancing. Lets get this over with and they want to get back to church so badly. Can you imagine, we have easter sunday, and i will be watching pastor Robert Jeffers, who has been a great guy. He has been a great guy, and i will be watching on a laptop right laptop is not the same wanting on a laptop. A laptop is not the same as being in a church. I have done this for three weeks, and they have the biggest audiences they have ever had. People are really liking what they are hearing, so i will be on easter i dont know if he knows it yet, but he will soon. He will learn in two minutes. Pastor Robert Jeffers and he is a terrific guy, terrific man. Have to know him very well. He is a man of great compassion, he loves our country, and i will be with him on easter. Meaning i will be watching on a laptop. Doesnt sound good, but you know, it is one of those things. It cannot be church. It cannot be church. People ofrs and most faith, people that we listen to and respect and admire, Franklin Graham is a person i have Great Respect for. He has done an incredible job in eentral park, where h has done an incredible job. The son of the late great billy graham. Franklin graham, the job he is doing she loves to do it he loves to do it. He does it with incredible love. He will tell you, we are all saying, we all have to get our country cured. There are some pastors and ministers and others who want to get together. I have Great Respect for them. Two of them i know. But i would say first, im a christian heal our country. Lets get healed before we do this. And if there is time to do that, we will do for the rest of our lives. Please. Reporter the mercy and the comfort seem to be underutilized in los angeles and new york. Is there consideration to sending the medical unit into alignto help get pres. Trump the mercy and the comfort were sand when projections are much higher. I say, tony backed it up, deborah made a statement. They said, you are not going to need these many reels, but we wanted to be prepared. We had the ship and they did an incredible job. The comfort was to be in maine is for a period of four weeks, and they had it done in three point the comfort was to be in maintenance for a period of four weeks, and they had it done and three and a half days. Andrew will tell you, we were ready to go. It is incredible the job they did, but they are using less beds. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. They are using less beds. Javits has been busy over the last couple of days. And the death numbers are horrific. If you go back now and you are finding they are going to start to come down substantially based on the fact the bed usage of the number of beds are much, much less. Much, much less parcel the mercy and the comfort much, much less. The mercy and the comfort you have the one in new york and the other fortunately, we have not hit numbers they wouldve been used. There would always have been overflow. They are not as convenient as certain places, but their people were ready, willing, and able. They were going to do a great job. But fortunately, just like we did not need as many ventilators when they were asking in new york for 40,000 ventilators, i had experts i listened to them. They said you will never need that many. And they were right. New york i am done really well with mayor de blasio. We got them a lot of ventilators. But we never felt you needed the numbers you were talking about, and we were right on that. We have a lot of federal we have a lot of ventilators ready to go, almost 10,000 in the stockpile. That 10,000 would move rapidly. We could be within 24 hours almost anywhere. Hopefully, we will not have to be, but this has been a great military operation. It is not for nonmilitary because we are dealing with Great Companies. We have Companies Making masks, and we are set up with the masks, too. We have an order coming in soon, 500 million masks. 500 million. We have companies. You know the story with gm or 3m, also gm, but 3m is doing a great job. I spoke to the ceo the other day. We settled it out and had a dispute with them. It is now all settled. And i think they are trying to show the country something, but may be me, but the country something. Know, ve done, you not me. I am not talking about them. This country, our country, the people the army corps of engineers, fema, people we have in the back that are watching every word we are saying they have done a fantastic job. They have really done a fantastic job. I wanted to ask you about testing. You mentioned the impossibility you mentioned the possibility country. G the pres. Trump we have 350 Million People. Reporter im talking about priorities and certain regional parts of the country. I wanted to ask you specifically about one industry in particular, and that is Food Processing plants. Is there a priority to get testing and Food Processing plants all across the country . Pres. Trump it is a fair question, too. Becausepened in denver, in denver, i said, what is going on . We are looking at this graph where everything is looking beautiful and it is coming down, and you have this one spike, and i said what happened in denver . Quickly ople, very by the way, they were on it like so fast, you wind believe it. They knew every aspect. They had people not only testing would a, but do you see . Where were you . How many did you meet . Where you and someone elses home . Where did this number of people come from . They were totally on it. I decided this morning. I am looking everything going down, topping out. Then you have this one spike in denver. It is like, where did this come from . We will be looking at that. We dont want cases like that happening. This kind of thing can happen. This is very complex. This is a brilliant enemy. It is a brilliant enemy. They develop drugs like the antibiotics. Antibiotics used to solve every problem. No one of the biggest problems the world has is that the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic cannot keep up with it. And there counseling trying to come up with a new one. And they are constantly trying to come up with a new one. People end up dying from problems. You know the problems im talking about hurry there is a whole you know the problems im talking about. It is very smart. It is invisible. And it is headed, but it is very smart it is hidden, but it is very smart. You see that in cases in denver good i think we are doing very well, and they were on denver like you wouldnt believe. They got that under control. That would be a case where you do big testing. Reporter we learned more than 60 maine americans file for unemployment over the past three weeks. It is good friday, payday and we are seeing troubling lines add banks around the country. What do you say to those americans in need . Pres. Trump number one, i love them. Number two, we are working hard. It is not their fault with what happened. This is a case where we take the strongest economy in the history of the world, which is what we have. More people working in the United States, peter, than ever before. I mean, look at the numbers. Shortllion people, just of 160, excuse me. We have the greatest economy we have ever had. Unemployment,ack hispanic unemployment, asian unemployment the best numbers we ever had in virtually every way, and you get hit like this, and it is dramatic. People who had great jobs who went out to dinner and did i have any problems, all of a sudden, you use the word cold turkey. They go from that to having no money and waiting for their checks that are being processed or rapidly, but they still have to go out and look for money. It is a terrible thing. All i say is that we love them, we are working so hard, and they will be back, and i hope they will be backing the stronger than before. Reporter a followup. You chose not to do a national stayathome order. Now you say you want to reopen parts of the economy. What authority do you have to do that . Isnt it up to the states to do that . Pres. Trump the states can do things if they want. I can override it if i want, but the national stayathome 95 of the country is stayathome. As an example, i was speaking with a great governor of texas the other day, greg abbott. Here has a stayathome and a lot of people did not know it. A lot of people reported texas did not have a, but had a strong stayathome. 96 of South Carolina has it, which at one point we could , which at one point a week ago they did not have. 95 of the country is covered. , andthe states that arent again, constitutionally, from a federalist standpoint, if i thought there was a problem, if i saw a state with a problem, i would absolutely demand it, but they are doing great. The states that arent are states that have not had a big problem. Reporter the same pres. Trump i have Great Authority if i want to use it. I would rather have the states use it. A lot of people say, heat is very reasoned he is very reasoned. I have absolute authority to do it, but so far, our relationship with governors in the job they are doing, i have not had to do a price what i do it if i saw the state out of control . I would do it in a heartbeat. Reporter mr. President , there is a lot of interest in how youre going to make that decision. Pres. Trump it is a very big decision. I dont know if i have had a bigger decision than that, dont you think . Someone say it is totally up to the president. And it is. I dont know if i have had a bigger decision, but i will surround myself with the greatest minds, not only the greatest minds go to the greatest minds in numerous different businesses. To make a going decision and hopefully it will be the right decision. I will say this, i want to get it open as soon as we can. We have to get our country open, jeff. Reporter do you know the metrics that you will make this decision . Pres. Trump the metrics are right here. That is all i can do. I can listen to 35 people, but at the end, i have to make a decision. And i did not think of it until yesterday. This is a big decision, but i want to be guided i will be guided by them. I will be guided by our Vice President. I will make a decision based on a lot of different opinions. Maybe well disagree maybe some will disagree. Will there be a risk . There is always a risk that something can flare up our look at what is happening there is always a was that something can flare up. Look at what is happening. I want to control it from a local standpoint. It is always a risk. This is a genius that we are fighting. We are fighting this hidden enemy, which is genius. It is genius. It is genius. The way it has attacked so many countries at so many different angles. I mean, you take a look at what mean, take a i look at what is going on. We have the greatest doctors in the world, but they have not figured it out yet. Look at what it is done to people. Some people it has grabbed and it is a horrible it is a horrible way to go, if you want to know the truth. And for some, it hardly has an impact on, like snuffles. Looked at newe, i york this morning, and i looked at the amount of people dying. A veryiolently, it is tough adversary, but we are going to win and we will win very decisively. I will have to make a decision, and i only hope to god it is the right decision. But i would say without question, it is the biggest decision i have ever had to make. Reporter a quick followup to dr. Fauci and dr. Birx. The model as i understand it is based on socialdistancing continuing through may. Is that correct . Going to open up the economy may 1, with that impact the model in terms of the deaths you expect . Pres. Trump you want to answer that . Dr. Birx we are taking turns today. Good. So, the model does state it is through may. Model we have had these discussions for weeks now. So, the models are informed by the data, and you can see how much that model has shifted. The amazing work of the American People. So, that is what we are evaluating right now. Remember, when i talked yesterday, i had been in Public Health a long time. I have never except for ebola , where we worked very closely with the community about specific issues, we have never taken a countrywide or a global wide approach to mitigation. This is unprecedented. I will tell you there is nothing in the literature about specifically what to expect, and i think that is why the models continue to modify themselves based on what actually has happened with socialdistancing and handwashing, and all of the pieces that the American People are doing, the decreasing, the closing of the bars and restaurants. No communal eating. That was a big issue in many of the other cultures that went through this virus. The models continue to evolve based on the impact, and so, it makes it very difficult to interpret each component of socialdistancing and which ones are solely critical. There is a way to do that. I want everyone to understand, there are states there there are states doing Contact Tracing. I think sometimes we look at what new york is doing. Utah, northere is a and south dakota, and a whole series of states doing Contact Tracing and testing. They had been testing at a rate higher than that per capita rate we have discussed, so we are looking at that. What did they do . Where are the most vulnerabilities . Where are the most outbreaks likely to occur . That is why i been talking about Nursing Homes because we believe there is a relationship between age and seriousness of disease. Not to say there cannot be young people with serious disease, but proportionally, it is a smaller piece with serious disease. So, when you have that spectrum when the older and more complicated, the higher the severity, you get the impression they may be more a systematic and Younger Age Group seven that is where the Antibody Test come in. When you pit all of these when you put all of these pieces together, where would be the first signal . We have surveillance with the cdc, influenzalike illness. I hope you are tracking that. They are showing the small changes. Us the insight about where to test, and and then were to proactively test in the Nursing Homes and other vulnerable groups because that has been the signal in a series of the states that have very, very low prevalence in incidents of disease. That is the kind of factors we are putting altogether through related fine the best way forward, and we have superb roadmaps. I hope you have seen them. There have been six different again,s to opening, and there is no literature that you can cite and say, we did this 20 years ago and what really worked. There isnt that. There are brilliant Public Health people giving us their insights. Models youof the have been using, when you start to open up the economy, doesnt that lead towards death . Dr. Birx look at how much you changed with mitigation, and now looking statebystate, and there still states doing Contact Tracing. Were looking at that we are looking at what that model predicted. Less medication and more Contact Tracing. Are you getting what im talking about . Ok. Not dore states tested stay at home there are states that did not do stayathome contactbut they did tracing. Were looking at the big metro areas, and we are integrating all that info together to make a plan Going Forward. I cannot tell you about i cannot tell you. Look how much the model has changed in a week. A week ago, it was 80,000. Now it is 60,000. And the curves are getting much broader. In the curves are getting broader. And the curves are getting broader. The model has instability. That is why tony and i base a lot of our decision and discussion on cases, and what physically is happening in that county, in that state. Integrating the models is one part of our thought process. Do you want to come up talk about thought a model . You are right about opening up and it could lead to death, but staying at home leads to death also. It is very traumatic for this ifntry, but staying at home, you look at numbers, that leads to a different kind of death perhaps, but it leads to death also. It is a very big decision. It is the biggest decision i will ever make. We will do a couple of more and then we will go. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You said the last people you talk to is Governor Cuomo. At his News Conference today, he said he was asking you to use the defense production act to require companies to make more tests, to streamline testing. Is that something you would consider because you considered it with ventilator . Pres. Trump the other side keep using that, and i have enacted it, you do now . I have used it. Some people fought viciously ask a couple of companies. If you want to know, you can look up the names, and im surprised he would have said that. We have great tests. We have under we have others we have of his underdevelopment. Surprised that he would have said that. Would have had a different answer. We talked about testing. We did talk about testing. One of the things i did was put the two doctors in charge of that call. I said, you know what, andrew . I have two talented people standing here. Let me put them on and have them talk to you. They talked to him at length. By the tightly they finish, he understood what we were saying. By the time they finished, he understood what they were staying. Holding talked about the World Health Organization responsible for its response to the coronavirus. Any more thought to Holding China financially responsible for the part it played an economic toll this is taking on the American People . Pres. Trump i understand the question very well. Look, nobody has done to china were treated china as strongly as i have. I will use the word strongly. As you know when you have reported on it, billions and billions of dollars is flowing into our treasury because what i done with china. I think it is a very sad thing that happened, and i think people knew, including the World Health Organization, and i do believe they knew, but they did not want to tell the world. We will get to the bottom of it. And we will have reports on all of this. We are not happy about it, but i wanted to leave the world health for later. I can tell you that we are constantly in touch with china. We are talking to china. We we have expressed how felt. We are not happy about it. We are not happy about it at all, ok . Reporter mr. President , we hear from a lot of people who see these briefings as happy talk briefings. Pres. Trump happy talk today . Reporter as human saudi officials paint a rosy picture about what is happening around the country and you look at some of these questions, do we have enough masks . Enough tests . No. Pres. Trump i think the answer is yes. Who said no . You are saying no. But who was saying no . Reporter we hear from doctors. Pres. Trump you did not say that. You said, do we have enough masks, tests . Yes. We are developing new test. Do we have enough ventilator . Yes. Do we have enough hospitals . Yes. We have enough hospital beds. Reporter i mean, you watch the coverage. A lot of it pres. Trump a lot of it is fake news. Governors reported depending on your air, they always say that otherwise you will not put them apart the governors have said last night, they had 14 governors were together someplace, and they said, it is unbelievable what has happened. Have been totally was everyone has the ventilators they need to appoint we are getting calls from Foreign Countries saying you have all the ventilators. Can we get some . These people have done an incredible job. This is not happy talk. Maybe it is happy talk for you. It is not happy talk for me. We are talking about death. We are talking about the greatest economy in the world closing off. Thousandslion of people have died. There is nothing happy about it, jim. This is sad talk. These are the saddest these are the saddest News Conferences i have ever had. I dont like doing them. You know why . Because im talking about death. Im talking about taking the greatest economy ever created we have had the greatest numbers in every aspect of economics, from employment, the companies. Look at the airlines. They were having the best year and now we have to save them. This is the real deal. I have to make the biggest decision of my life. And i only started thinking about that. I have made a lot of Big Decisions over my life. You understand that. This is by far the biggest decision of my life. I have to say, ok, lets go. Doctors thats a unbelievable job. I watched this morning i watched a certain network, and it wasnt fox, and there were doctors saying we have done an incredible job. You just run off no, no, no. We have ventilators, we have ventilators, we have equipment, we have beds. How about beds . Governor cuomo just told me a little while ago he she has got plenty of beds. Theyre having a hard time filling javits center. Is not a fair question. No, no, no. Excuse me. We have masks, we have everything. We were trying to get ready for the surge. A lot of people said it would never happen. Deborah said it, you will never need that many beds. They said we needed 40,000 ventilators. 40,000 ventilators people said. Guess what . We have tremendous, we are the envy of the world in terms of ventilators. Germany would like summit. France would like some. Youre going to help countries out. Germany would like some. Needs them desperately. Mexico needs them desperately. He asked me last night, would it be possible to get 10,000 ventilators . Within a short time, i will be able to help out mexico. Jim, we are in great shape. What is happening now is those numbers, horrible, but take a look at the number of beds. We have beds available all over new york. New york being the epicenter. New york has experienced something that has been horrific. Island, those people being buried yesterday. Fortunately, we have the beds. You can speak to mayor de blasio or Governor Cuomo, people are people cannot even believe the job we have done. And i give tremendous credit to the military. This has been a military operation with private people. Wait, wait. To thetremendous credit military, the army corps of engineers, to fema, to these people. The job they have done is incredible. And you should not be asking that kind of a question. I really do not believe in that. Pres. Trump talking over reporter] nobody is asking. That is not enough. Pres. Trump we have more tests than anybody in the world. Virtually every country in the world calling us, asking us, how do we get these tests that you have . Your testing is the best in the world, how do we get it . They have done a fantastic job and when you ask a question like that it is very insulting to a lot of great people. One more place. How sweet have seen and responded to the pandemic. The schools are open. Bars and restaurants are open. Do you not following that approach . Is that approach working . Pres. Trump if we did follow that approach we might have 2 Million People dead and sweet it is having a lot of difficulty. Sweden is having a lot of difficulty. Look, i am very friendly with the leadership in sweden. They took a different approach. They are very disciplined country to start off with. Other places tried it. That u. K. Tried it, the heard approach herd. They tried it, and you saw what happened in u. K. It set them back a lot of time, theyre having a tough time. Other countries have tried it and sweet and is suffering greatly. Herd, as with the they say, we wouldve had potentially, you see the charts. Nobody knows. Nobody will ever know, fortunately. Because we will be substantially less than the minimum i hope unless some thing happens that would be tragic. A minimum number if we, one of the reasons we are so far below that number is because nobody thought the American People could be so disciplined. Nobody thought it was possible. And i guess when they watched us up here every day and they watched other people and listened to their representatives and governors, nobody thought the American People could be so disciplined. They have been unbelievable. Because of that, so you have a minimum number of a hundred thousand. Numberu have the 2. 2 that if we just kept working, people would be dropping dead on the subways. No. If we would have lost a Million People. Take that 2. 2 million and cut it in half. Cut it in more than half, make it one Million People. Now take that number and cut it in half, make it 500,000 people, that is if we did nothing, right . It is unacceptable, it is too many people. So we spent more money on stimulus. Who cares, by comparison . You cut it innd half, you cut in half, you keep cutting it in half, i do not care what number you choose . 50 60ing to have, 65 maybe. One country tried. And it has been tough for them, very tough, very nasty. Remember, u. K. Tried and i was a little bit surprised and i watched, they were going what, two weeks . And they said we have to stop. Because they were going to have a whole country infected. So with all of that said we have to get back to work. We have to get our country open. But we could have lost one Million People or half a Million People. If we would have lost 500,000 people, and i will say this from the standpoint of being president and Vice President and we are up there and we are doing that herd, and we are going to bullet through it, do you honestly think that people like you and jim and yourself would put up with it as people are dying all over . They would have said this man is crazy. At ase the numbers, minimum, what have been many times greater than the numbers we are talking about so i am honored by our decisions, all of us. We talk about it all the time. I said, do you want to let them just, you just write it right through. Ride it. We would have lost millions of people. It would have been unsustainable and impossible to do. The American People have been so disciplined, it is my honor to be the president. It has been my great honor to have been there president. I have a big decision coming out. And i only hope that it is the right decision but it will be based on the input from a lot of very talented people, very smart people, and people who love our country. Thank you all very much. [cameras clicking] eveninght, a special addition of washington journal, on the federal response to the coronavirus crisis. Join us at 8 00 eastern with the American Medical Association president , dr. Patrice harris, on the medical Community Response to the pandemic. Virusn i talk about the effect on travel and tourism. And a congressman on his experience contracting the virus. Join the conversation, washington journal primetime tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Cspan, we are featuring the winners of our studentcam documentary, titian. Midland documentary competition. Midland high school asked the question, what issued you most want 2020 candidates to address . Nightcond prize goes to graders from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in long beach, california, where cspan is available. Their winning entry is titled, opportunity for all. We want president ial candidates to talk about tuition should be free. Education is important to our future. Opportunity, who gets it in america . Is it reserved for those at the top . Opportunity. Opportunity, for every one of our kids. And i underline every one of our kids, to get a first rate education. You have kids coming out with 100,000 or two who thousand dollars of student debt and they cannot survived we are taking away opportunities from them and that is wrong. Statistics show when they have the opportunity to go to college, even if they do not go through that, they have a whole different horizon of opportunities. Crisis isdent debt overall in the nation. Trillion dollars in debt and under 60. 8 million are under the age of 30. We visited the Cal State University chancellor to get their opinion on free tuition. I had two or three jobs when i was in college. If it would have been free, i would have had more opportunity and more time to focus on my academics. , theyn they leave college have more purchasing power. People with more purchasing power drive the economy. So, people are waiting longer to have children and to buy houses at to do a lot of things, because they have debt that they are carrying over. Access for all. Access for anyone wants to learn and spent time and spend time in a Higher Education institution is really important. Studies with students over 18 rise waiting from high school, phase wherein an there is a whole phase of developing after high school. This is an opportunity in college to expand their minds and Critical Thinking skills. To be more productive members of society. The proslistening to and benefits, few concerns. Public universities already feel underfunded. If it became free i would worry that public universities would be hard for them to maintain the level of competitiveness and the quality they are able to provide now. Over time, the disparity between how good an education you would get at a public versus private institution might become, the gap might become big and unfair. There has to be some type of carrot, throughout the time ,tudents are in the program because some might not necessarily feel as invested. If it is 100 free. There has to be some thought in terms of, what is keeping students in college . Right now we do not have the resources to pay for what a lot of politicians are promising, unless we really radically change the tax structure. That will mean that people have more wealth will saddle up more of the burden because that is where more of the many lies. It is a great idea but unless we do something to change the income flows to our government, our government will not have the funds to be able to do that. According to u. S. News world report, the United States leads the world in economic power, military spending and technology. So why cant we lead the world in providing Free Education . And all of our interviews, we asked, gino any countries that provide do you know of any countries that provide Free Education and if so, how . I lived in europe and most european universities are free. Their taxes are covering that. That is a commitment. But not everybody goes to university. In many industrialized countries, more advanced societies, particularly tuition is kept low. It is kept affordable. Is nothink that if it free, they tried to create support structures and economic packages, to encourage people to go to the university. Some countries where there is more public support for education, there are different tax structures. So there are countries that have more of a flat tax. When you have a flat tax, lets say you want pay one penny on every dollar. If you pay 10, you pay . 10. If you make 10 million you pay a lot more in taxes than Something Else. This topic is very important. This crisis firsthand where debt is negatively affecting many. At the college of fort ability crisis reaches a fever pitch we want to take a step back college affordability. 2016 election, when a lot of people thought Hillary Clinton was going to win, and then you get a donald trump presidency. And all of that momentum that had been building since 2005 just, stops. Until we have politicians that makes education and public priority, we are not investing as much in people. The are being reactive to problems in society and in the world, as opposed to trying to create a better future. If we inform people now throw our future president ial candidates, we can help future generations have the freedom to a Higher Education and a career they enjoy. Each winningtch studentcam documentary online at studentcam. Org