Trump: FEMA ordered 180 million masks to fight coronavirus
The federal government will “move Heaven and Earth” to keep the American people safe, Trump explained.
By HAGAY HACOHENUS President Donald Trump.(photo credit: REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump addressed the American people on Saturday evening and said “we are using the Defense Production Act” for FEMA to order 180 million masks to fight the coronavirus, and stressed that if “people won’t give us what we need for our people, we’ll do what we have to do.” Trump repeated the figure, saying “who ever heard of such a number?” He also stressed now is not the time to “play politics” and claimed it is the duty of the various states to report on how many ventilators they actually have as “some states have more than they need.”“We have 10,000 ventilators and we’re moving some into New York City as well as the state,” he said.He called New York the “hottest spot” and said that some of the outbreak is “spilling over” into New Jersey.Trump took the time to thank the state of Oregon for sending ventilators to New York and remarked that “we’re all in this together.” He also thanked Vice President Mike Pence for his work communicating with state governors.Trump said the US must use its scientific genius to “eradicate the virus” so that “we can get back to work.”“We have to open our country again, we don’t want to do this for months and months,” he said. “This country wasn't made for this.”
The US has “the greatest economy in the world and we were told to shut it down, which we had to do because of this terrible virus,” Trump explained.He said that he will ask Congress for money to support American workers and small businesses. He added that 40,000 Americans were helped to return to the US from the countries they were in. He thanked the American people for their sacrifice and joked that some people are now “able to get to know their families.” “We are having a great unity,” he said, “and we will return to our greatness.”The president added that “when the brunt of it [coronavirus] comes,” the federal government will “move Heaven and Earth” to keep the American people safe.
