| | | Top Trump official told America that coronavirus would be good for the economy — weeks before all hell broke loose
President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary predicted the coronavirus would boost the U.S. economy — even after an administration briefing prompted some lawmakers to dump some of their stock holdings.
Wilbur Ross, who heads the Commerce Department, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Jan. 30 that the viral outbreak would bring jobs back to North America from China, where the outbreak was first detected.
“Every American’s heart goes out to the victims of the coronavirus, so I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate and very malignant disease,” Ross said nearly two months ago. “But the fact is it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain on top of all the other things. Because you had SARS, you had the African swine virus there, now you have this. It’s another risk factor that people need to take into account.”
“I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America, some to U.S., probably some to Mexico, as well,” he added.
The stock market has collapsed by about 35 percent since the coronavirus spread across the world last month, destroying more than $8 trillion in shareholder value and instantly erasing millions of U.S. jobs.
Ross made his prediction nine days after the first U.S. case of the coronavirus was detected Jan. 21 outside Seattle in a young man who had recently traveled to China.
Three days after that case was detected, the Senate Health Committee, hosted a private, all-senators briefing from administration officials on the coronavirus outbreak and the threats it posed to public health and the economy.
Several senators — including Richard Burr (R-NC) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) — sold off millions of their own stock holdings in the days that followed that Jan. 24 briefing.
It’s not clear what Ross had been told those threats, which were also the subject of multiple intelligence briefings in January and February.
A week before Trump was inaugurated, Ross and other incoming administration officials took part in a joint exercise with outgoing Obama administration officials on a pandemic that closely resembled the COVID-19 outbreak.
Former Obama officials revealed last week that some Trump officials were dismissive of the exercise, and the infamously somnolent Ross was spotted with his eyes closed on more than one occasion.
“There were people who were there who said, ‘This is really stupid and why do we need to be here,’” said one senior Obama administration official who singled out Ross and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as especially disinterested.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Department denied Ross fell asleep during the exercise.
“Secretary Ross found the meeting quite interesting and informative, taking many notes during the exercise,” the spokesperson said. “He continues to rely upon that knowledge and experience as he assists the president in confronting the crisis at hand.” |
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