Trump says he never saw a January WH memo warning of the impact from coronavirus

At Tuesday’s coronavirus task force briefing, President Trump said he never saw a memo written in late January by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro warning about the possible effects of coronavirus in the United States. The memo warned that the illness could endanger the lives of millions of Americans.

Video Transcript

- Did you see these memos that, reportedly, Peter Navarro wrote back in January? When did you see them, and how does that-- these memos sort of square with what you've often said that nobody could have predicted this? It sounds like he was predicting it.

TRUMP: I didn't see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic. I didn't see them. I didn't look for them, either. But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it. That was about the same time that I closed it down. I asked him about it just a little while ago because I read something about a memo. I said, did you do a memo? I didn't look for it. I didn't see it. I didn't ask him to show it to me.

He said, yes. I talked about the possibility of a pandemic. Nobody said it's going to happen, but you know, there is a possibility. There always has been a possibility, but people wouldn't talk about it. But it was right about the time that I closed it down. And interestingly, the World Health Organization was not in favor of us closing it down. And if we didn't close it down, we would have lost hundreds of thousands more lives. So I did a good thing. Yeah.

- So at the time, though, when Peter Navarro did circulate those memos, you were still downplaying the threat of coronavirus in the US. You were saying things like, I think it's a problem that's going to go away--

TRUMP: Which I'm right about. It will go away.

- You said within a couple of days, the cases will be down to zero.

TRUMP: Well, the cases really didn't build up for a while. But you have to understand, I'm a cheerleader for this country. I don't want to create havoc and shock and everything else. But ultimately, when I was saying that, I'm also closing it down. I obviously was concerned about it because I closed down our country to China, which was heavily infected.

I then closed it down to Europe. That's a big move, closing it down from China and then closing it down from Europe, and then ultimately closing it down to the UK. And it was right about that time, but I'm not going to go out and start screaming this could happen, this could happen. So again, as president, I think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country. But at the same time I'm cheerleading, I'm also closing down a very highly infected place, specifically the location, as you know, in China that had the problems.

And we're closing it down, but we close it down to all of China, then we close it down to all of Europe. Those were big moves, and it was right about that time.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- Just a quick follow up, Mr. President--

- Did you just learn about this today?

TRUMP: Say it again.

- You learned about the memo today?

TRUMP: I read about it maybe a day ago, two days ago.

- Do you feel like someone among your staff, or Peter Navarro himself, should have told you about the memo earlier?

TRUMP: No, not at all. It was a recommendation. It was a feeling that he had. I think he told certain people in the staff, but it didn't matter. I didn't see it, but I did-- I closed it down. I don't remember it even being discussed. We had a meeting where there were a lot of people. Most people felt they should not close it down, that we shouldn't close down to China, but I felt we had to do it. And that was almost the exact same time as the memo.

- If you had read the memo at the time, how would that have changed the steps you took or the statements that you made--

TRUMP: I don't think it would've changed because I did-- I basically did what the memo said, and the memo was, you know, the memo was a pretty good memo from the standpoint that he took-- I guess, I didn't see it yet.

- He was saying that the US would lose-- warning that the US could lose trillions of dollars and millions of lives.

TRUMP: Well, you're not going to lose millions of lives, but you'll lose plenty of money. But I couldn't have done it any better because it was about the same time, and I closed it down to China.

- Just last thing, so you maintained confidence in him, in Peter Navarro?

TRUMP: Of course I maintained confidence. He wrote a memo, and he was right, and I haven't seen the memo. I'll see it later on after this, but it didn't matter whether I saw it or not because I acted on my own. I guess I had the same instincts as Peter. Peter is a smart guy, and he's a good guy, and he's done a wonderful job. But he wrote a memo, and I guess he talked to various people about it. But ultimately, I did what the memo more or less what the memo said just about the time the memo came out. I closed it down. I took a lot of heat.