As the United States is grappling with Coronavirus pandemic, having the most Coronavirus positive cases in the world, President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that he may seek damages from China over the COVOD-19 outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread around the world.
Trump said at a White House briefing that “we are not happy with China, we are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source.”
“It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world,” he said.
“There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable,” Trump said. “We’re doing some very serious investigations as you probably know.”
Trump was asked about a recent German newspaper editorial which called on China to pay Germany $165 billion in reparations because of economic damage done by the virus.
Asked if the US would consider doing the same, the US president said “we can do something much easier than that.”
“Germany is looking at things, we are looking at things,” he said. “We are talking about a lot more money than Germany’s talking about.”
“We haven’t determined the final amount yet,” Trump said. “It’s very substantial.
“This is worldwide damage,” he said. “This is damage to the US, but this is damage to the world.”
Fatalities due to coronavirus in America has crossed 55,000 mark and as the country is under lockdown, people are facing unemployment with most economic activities being stopped at the moment.