As President Donald Trump held Monday’s daily coronavirus press conference the DOW plunged into near free-fall, dropping an additional 800 points to being down 3000 points or more on the day.
President Trump told reporters, who are now observing social distancing guidelines in the press briefing room, that he is considering a quarantine but not nationwide. He also said the crisis could be felt throughout the nation as late as July or August.
“We have that very much,” Trump said when asked if he was considering a quarantine. “Yeah, we have that very much, and we are, we’ve been pretty aggressive. We were early with Europe but we were very very early with China,” the President said of his ban on people being allowed to enter the U.S. from those two geographic areas.
Asked if he is “considering institutiong a nationwide lockdown a nationwide quarantine,” Trump appeared to be prepared to say yes, but then reporter Geoff Bennett told the president the NSC had “knocked that down.”
“At this point not nationwide,” Trump responded.
Earlier today Ken Cuccinelli of the Dept. of Homeland Security responded to rumors of a nationwide lockdown:
Trump continued to insist his administration has been doing a “fantastic job,” despite all the experts who disagree.
The President said “at this point” he is not looking to lockdown the entire country, but added: “we may look at certain areas, certain hotspots as they call them.”
Asked if the current situation, with businesses and schools closing down is the new normal Trump said: “They think August, it could be July, could be longer than that.”
Trump was also asked to talk to those who are scared, which includes millions of Americans. He confirmed that yes, People are “very scared,” but then launched into a self-congratulatory series of remarks.
Watch:
UPDATE: