Published 17:03 IST, March 18th 2020
Donald Trump defends 'Chinese virus' comment, says 'it's very accurate'
US President Donald Trump reportedly defended his comments for labeling COVID-19 as “Chinese virus” despite multiple protests from Beijing.
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US President Donald Trump reportedly defended his comments for labeling COVID-19 as “Chinese virus” despite multiple protests from Beijing. The Republican leader, on March 17 had taken to Twitter to offer support to industries affected by the “Chinese virus”. However, netizens had mixed reactions on the apparently “racial” comment.
On Tuesday, the American leader wrote that he will provide full support to industries affected by the "Chinese virus." The remark from the President came even after China's strong criticism following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's "Wuhan Virus" statement.
The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2020
There it is. I’ve been deathly afraid of this exact moment where Trump turns to racism and xenophobia and calls COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus.” We are in deep trouble as a nation now that President of the United States makes the conscious decision to go down this dark path of hate.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 16, 2020
I’m Chinese, stop playing the racist card! it is a virus created by the Chinese communist party in a bio-lab, outbreaked in 🇨🇳, spread to the world by Chinese people, I don’t see anything wrong calling it “Chinese virus”, the world needs to remember who created all the disasters
— Stella ✨🇨🇦 🆘 HK (@Stella_7799) March 17, 2020
Trump defends his comments
Speaking at a news conference, Trump said that “It did come from China, so I think it's very accurate." Talking about his comments, the US leader also indicated a motive to retaliate against what he said was China's disinformation campaign to blame the US military for the virus outbreak. "China was putting out information which was false. I didn't appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody."
17:03 IST, March 18th 2020