Photo: Getty Images
President Donald Trump continues to blame China for the coronavirus pandemic during a press conference Thursday and again made a point to refer to the virus as the "Chinese virus".
“The world is paying a very big price for that they did,” Trump said, referring to his claim that Chinese officials did not fully share information about the seriousness of the virus.
“It could have been stopped right where it came from, China,” the president said during his white house press conference. He argued that American officials would've been able to act more efficiently if China's government had shared all the information that they knew about the outbreak.
“It would have been much better if we had known about this a number of months earlier,” the president said.
A reporter asked the president if in the future would there be repercussions against China for how they've handled the pandemic, but Trump said, “I don’t want to comment on that right now.”
These new developments from the Trump come two months after he praised China's response to the coronavirus. He even tweeted that the country had been working very hard and "the United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency."
But as the virus continues to spread at alarming numbers in the United States, the president has shifted into referring to the virus as the "Chinese virus".
Photos have even surfaced of a sheet of paper that contained remarks from Trump that showed the words "corona" crossed out and replaced with the word "Chinese" above it.
The president's new habit of saying "Chinese virus" has drawn strong criticism from Chinese officials and a number of U.S politicians, including Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
But Trump has defended his use of the term because it's not racist at all.
When asked why he using that term the president said, "Because it comes from China. That’s why. I want to be accurate.”
For more information, please read here.