During a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Varadkar, President Trump took questions from reporters and delivered an update on the coronavirus response.
ECONOMIC RELIEF ACTIONS
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We’re looking at a lot of things including paid leave and we’re looking at many things. We’re also making sure they’re going to get their salaries.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We’re also making sure that the companies, which are good companies, stay solvent, have the money necessary to keep functioning. So we have a lot of things that we are working on with the financial markets and it’s going to work out fine.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I happen to think that a payroll tax cut would be a very good idea, very distributed, really distributes it very evenly among middle class and other workers, I mean many workers. It would be a great thing.”
EFFECTIVE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “This is a big world problem. We’ve taken some bold steps. We took the original boldest step of all when we closed very early with China. That helped us save thousands of lives, and we went very early with Europe. And I think that will likewise be very good.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Well, we get along very well with European leaders but we had to make a decision and I didn’t want to take time and you know, it takes a long time to make the individual calls and we are calling. And we have spoken to some of them prior to, some of the majors prior to. But we had to move quickly.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “And one of the reasons U.K. basically, has been – it’s got the border, it’s got very strong borders, and they’re doing a very good job. They don’t have very much infection at this point, and hopefully they’ll keep it that way.”
TESTING AND SCREENING
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “They have a million tests out now. They’re going to have, over the next few days, they’re going to have four million test out.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “If an American’s coming back or anybody’s coming back, we’re testing. We have a tremendous testing set up where people coming in have to be tested.”
COMMONSENSE PRECAUTIONS
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Use common sense, like washing your hands and, you know, certain things, keep a little bit of distance away. That’s why sporting events are a little bit tough because you have people sitting in small seats right next to each other, so it’s a little bit tough.”
HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ CORONAVIRUS LEGISLATION
REPORTER: “Do you support the House bill, the House Democratic bill?”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “No, because there are things in there that have nothing to do with what we are talking about. So you know, it’s not a way for them to get some of the goodies they haven’t been able to get for the last 25 years.”
The Trump Administration Takes Action to Support Small Businesses and Workers Impacted by Coronavirus
Following President Trump’s announcement last night, the Administration took immediate action to support our nation’s small businesses and workers.
The Department of Labor took action to provide more flexibility in unemployment insurance programs to assist Americans affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
- DOL: “Following President Donald J. Trump’s swift action to protect the American workforce from exposure to COVID-19 – also known as novel coronavirus – the U.S. Department of Labor today announced new guidance outlining flexibilities that states have in administering their unemployment insurance (UI) programs to assist Americans affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.”
- DOL: “Under the guidance, federal law permits significant flexibility for states to amend their laws to provide UI benefits in multiple scenarios related to COVID-19.”
- DOL: “For example, federal law allows states to pay benefits where: (1) An employer temporarily ceases operations due to COVID-19, preventing employees from coming to work; (2) An individual is quarantined with the expectation of returning to work after the quarantine is over; and (3) An individual leaves employment due to a risk of exposure or infection or to care for a family member. In addition, federal law does not require an employee to quit in order to receive benefits due to the impact of COVID-19.”
The Small Business Administration announced it will be providing disaster relief loans for impacted small businesses.
- SBA: “SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans offer up to $2 million in assistance for a small business. These loans can provide vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing.”
- SBA: “The U.S. Small Business Administration is offering designated states and territories low-interest federal disaster loans for working capital to small businesses suffering substantial economic injury as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
- SBA: “These loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact.”