U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended a press conference after a CBS journalist asked him a critical question about his competitiveness in the fight against Covid-19. “Why do you see the testing capacity as a global competition?” it sounded. “Don’t ask me that. Ask that to China,” Trump reacted irritably before stepping out angry.
During the daily press conference, which took place in the rose garden of the official residence, Trump emphasized that America is the world leader in testing. He said he doubled testing capacity in the US, which now allows 300,000 people to test for Covid-19 every day.
More than 9 million Americans have since been tested, according to Trump. “No other country has that much testing,” said Trump.
Weija Jiang, a CBS journalist with Asian roots, asked why the President considers testing the capacity to be “a global competition while thousands of Americans are dying every day from the effects of the virus.”
“That’s not a question you should ask me,” Trump said indignantly. “Just ask China. If you ask them, you might get a strange answer.”
Trump then went on to ask another journalist, but Jiang asked the President, “why he specifically said that to her.” The President replied that he would ask that question to anyone and called her a “nasty question”.
After the clash, CNN journalist Katilan Collins tried to speak, but the President did not let her finish. “Next”, sounded firm. Collins insisted, after which Trump angrily left the press conference.
