If there were any question that President Donald Trump is politicizing the coronavirus pandemic, his notes put that to rest.
Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford snapped a shot of President Donald Trump’s notes from Thursday’s coronavirus task force press briefing.
As he shows in the images below, Trump’s speech reads “Corona Virus,” but the word “Corona” was crossed out with a black marker and replaced with the word “Chinese.”
It’s unknown who made the change, and it’s possible even if that’s not Trump’s handwriting that he could have directed a staffer to “correct” it for him.
Trump has taken to calling coronavirus the “Chinese virus” all week, ever since his apparent decision to present himself as having known and said the coronavirus crisis was a pandemic all along – which is false. He called it a hoax and worked to minimize its lethality for months.
But on Twitter and in speaking in public Trump has worked to call it the “Chinese virus.”