As global markets continue to tank, with Wall Street trading halted after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dove more than 2,000 points, and as at least 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia reporting infections of the novel coronavirus President Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on downplaying the crisis, blaming the news media and the Democratic Party for hyping the outbreak and repeating the risk is still “low to the average American.”
“The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, ‘The risk is low to the average American,'” Trump tweeted Monday morning before the markets opened.
Later, about an hour after the markets plunged, Trump continued to engage in a confused narrative about the crisis, downplaying the situation and often putting him at odds with the messaging his own health experts are trying to get across.
