Trump and his coronavirus task force have been holding daily briefings on the pandemic this week after facing harsh criticisms for downplaying the severity of the outbreak at its beginning. During a White House news conference on Wednesday, the president was asked by a reporter whether he considered the country to be at war in terms of combating the virus, the BBC reports.
"It's a war," he said. "I view it as a, in a sense, a wartime president,” he added, going on to say that “we are going to defeat the invisible enemy. I think we are going to do it even faster than we thought, and it'll be a complete victory. It'll be a total victory."
During the daily news conference on Wednesday with his coronavirus task force, Trump announced he will invoke the Defense Production Act, first enacted by the US in 1950 during the Korean War. Based on the stipulations of the law, the United States government would be able to accelerate the production of required protective equipment for fighting the spread of the infection, such as masks, respirators, and ventilators, among other supplies.
With this invisible enemy out on the battlefield, may we expect to see the commander-in-chief and his squad fighting the foe while armed with a bunch of medical gear? Or will The Donald go after the coronavirus the same way the military goes after other targets? According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the current number of confirmed infections in the US stands at 13,680.
