Coronavirus: Trump turns press conference into commercial for health industry

Donald Trump came to the White House Rose Garden to again address the country about the coronavirus outbreak as much of American life slowly shut down. But what followed was the president giving his citizens little practical guidance, instead giving a boost to major corporations and sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring.

The president said he "doesn't take responsibility at all" for the federal government's uneven response because the Obama administration changed rules related to infectious disease outbreaks that left him hamstrung. Former Obama administration officials, however, deny their moves affected what they and Congressional Democrats call the Trump administration's slow and ineffective response.

Mr Trump also described rules changes and regulations likely to be waived that will give hospital administrators and doctors almost unfettered authority to treat patients in their facilities.

The president promised Americans he is "with you every step of the way." He urged them to stand several feet apart, wash their hands and avoid business-related travel.

But much of his press conference was devoted to free commercial time for executives from companies like CVS, Walgreens, Labcorp and others. The event was perhaps best summarised by Anthony Fauci, the lead federal infectious disease experts, who said "you have to embrace the private sector."

The president did just that, often breaking his government's own advice by shaking hands with the health sector executives or slapping them on the back. The administration has urged people to avoid typical social contact like hand-shaking.

Those executives talked about products they have to offer, ones they are developing and painted themselves as focused mostly on benevolence rather than profits.

But a curious juxtaposition to the business-oriented theme of his remarks came as the Dow Jones Industrial Average – which Mr Trump has described as a leading reason he deserves a second term – rose by around 1,000 points as he spoke. It was up around 700 points when he, Vice President Mike Pence, members of his virus task force and the health CEOs walked into the Rose Garden.

While the companies were getting free airtime, the Dow climbed to a 1,200-point hike, then 1,400, then over 1,600, before ending the day up 1,985 points after a week of substantial losses.

Later in the event, he implored reporters to ask "these great geniuses" some questions. Only one did.

But by that time, Mr Trump had achieved a major goal: Boosting the Dow and other markets to support his claim that he has built an economy strong enough to handle what he continued to describe on Friday as a "pandemic" that should be "gone" in a few weeks.

Notably, the president put a timeframe for normalcy to return, saying he expects another "eight weeks" of virus spread and disruption to everyday American life.

"We will all make sacrifices. These short term sacrifices will lead to long term gain," he said.

"It could worse," he added in a rare admission that more cases are likely. (There were 1,875 cases in the US and 47 deaths as of 4.20pm Friday.)

"The next eight weeks are critical," he said, saying at that point his team expects to "turn a corner on this virus."

"Some of the doctors say it will wash through, it will flow through," Mr Trump said, adding "those are very interesting terms."

"In times of hardship the true character of America always shines through, he said. But on Friday, it was the character of American business that Mr Trump wanted to highlight.

For average Americans, his message was to only get tested if they are very sick – or, in Trump parlance, show "certain symptoms." He did not explain just what those symptoms would be, however.

Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, said the administration is "doing what we must to help our vulnerable elderly. But she did not explain what those steps are, or what family members can do to ensure their older family members are getting proper care.

What he did explain in detail is a move intended to boost the US energy sector and its biggest companies, saying he has instructed the Energy Department to "purchase a large quantity" of crude oil to "fill up" the country's strategic oil reserve stockpile.

"We're going to be helping our oil industry," he said flatly, adding with some pep in his voice: "The price of oil went down, so we're going to fill it up."

The announcement marked the sixth time Mr Trump has declared a national emergency, following several to issue sanctions on foes like Iran and one that allowed him to declare on at the southern border and move $8bn dollars in Pentagon monies to his proposed border barrier project.

On the new rules and waived regulations for hospitals and local officials, he described a plan to give them broad new authorities.

With the national emergency designation, he handed his Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, the ability to waive a score of rules and regs, including ones to allow hospital officials to move elderly Americans to nursing homes faster to free up beds.

Azar also could hand local officials at hospitals the ability to limit the length of a patient's hospital stay to 96 hours. (Influenza victims, for instance, often are told to go home and rest.)

Another possible change will allow hospital officials to treat patients in parts of facilities now off limits to actual care.

The changes could be implemented differently across the country, stirring possible scenes of chaos and frustration.

"They can do what they have to do," Mr Trump said of local and hospital officials. "And now they don't have any problem."

But as the virus is expected to spread, the president's political problems could only be starting with an election only eight months away.

With his Friday order, the president is giving local and hospital officials a big stake in whether he wins re-election in November.

"With this order, people at the state and local level, from physicians all the way up in the federal government," Mr Fauci said, "have all the restraints removed they possibly can so we can implement the things we've been talking about."