President Trump defended himself from critics during Tuesday's White House press briefing on the Wuhan coronavirus after calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus" on his Twitter account.
People on Twitter rushed to claim Trump was being racist and xenophobic for using the label, which is to serve as a reminder that the virus started in Wuhan, China and spread across the globe because of the authoritarian government's incompetent response, attempts to hide the outbreak and its silencing of whistleblowers who tried to raise the alarm over the disease.
Most importantly, it's to stop attempts from the Chinese government from spreading conspiracy theories that the United States is behind the outbreak.
The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2020
Cuomo wants “all states to be treated the same.” But all states aren’t the same. Some are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all. New York is a very big “hotspot”, West Virginia has, thus far, zero cases. Andrew, keep politics out of it....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2020
"Well, China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave that to them. That is false. Rather than having an argument, I said, 'I have to call it where it came from. It did come from China.' So I think it's a very accurate term. So no, I didn't appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody."
Trump was then asked if continuing to use the phrase "Chinese virus" creates a stigma.
"No, I don’t think so. No, I think saying that our military gave it to them creates stigma," he replied.