President Trump's G20 Announcement Reminder - 03/27/20

We'll be able to deploy even more data-driven and targeted approaches to slow the -- ultimately, you know, it's a very devastating thing, but we will vanquish this virus. And it's -- a lot of progress has been made.

That's why earlier today I sent a letter to America's governors, describing how we will be using the data to update existing guidance on social distancing, which will be developed in close coordination with our nation's public health officials and scientists.

Because of the sacrifices of our great doctors and nurses and healthcare professionals, the brilliance of our scientists and researchers, and the goodness and generosity of our people, I know that we will achieve victory and quickly return to the path of exceptional health, safety, and prosperity for all of our citizens.

We have to get back to work. Our people want to work. They want to go back. They have to go back. And we're going to be talking about dates. We're going to be talking with a lot of great professionals. But this is a country that was built on getting it done, and our people want to go back to work. I'm hearing -- I'm hearing it loud and clear from everybody. So we'll see what -- what happens. We're going to have a lot more information early next week, and we'll be reporting that back.

But I just want to leave it with you: We have to go back. This is the United States of America. They don't want to sit around and wait. And they'll be practicing -- and, by the way, a lot of people misinterpret when I say “go back.” They’re going to be practicing, as much as you can, social distancing and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things that we talk about so much. But they have to go back to work. Our country has to go back. Our country is based on that.

And I think it's going to happen pretty quickly. I think it's going to happen pretty quickly. A lot of progress is made, but we got to go back to work. We may take sections of our country. We may take large sections of our country that aren't so seriously affected, and we may do it that way. But we've got to start the process pretty soon. So we'll be talking to you a little bit more about that next week.

About G20:

This morning at 7:55, I spoke to the leaders of the G20. Had a great meeting. And we have a lot of different ideas, a lot of good ideas. We’re working together. The leaders gathered virtually around the world to discuss the whole subject of the problem that, right now, 151 nations have got. We had:

• President Alberto Fernández of Argentina

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia

• President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada

• President Xi of China

• President Emmanuel Macron of France

• Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany

• Prime Minister Modi of India

• President Widodo of Indonesia

• Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy

• Prime Minister Shinzō Abe of Japan. Congratulations to

Japan on making a great decision on the Olympics. Going to make it next year, 2021.

• President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico. I want to thank the President of Mexico for having done such a great job with respect to the military. We have 27,000 Mexican soldiers on our southern border, and very few people are getting through -- I can tell you that. And we got to keep it that way. And we have a great relationship with Mexico now.

• President Putin of Russia

• King Salman of Saudi Arabia

• President Ramaphosa of South Africa

• President Moon of, as you know, a country that we spend a lot of time in: South Korea. We’re working very hard on that.

• Prime Minister Sánchez of Spain

• President Erdoğan of Turkey

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom

• President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

• President of the European Council Charles Michel

• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

• World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom

• World Bank President David Malpass

• and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva

So, that’s a big group but it’s a great group. It’s -- and they were all there -- every one of them. And we talked about the problem. And hopefully it won’t be a problem for too much longer.

The United States is working with our friends and partners around the world to stop the spread of the virus and coordinate our efforts. We discussed how vitally important it is for all of our nations to immediately share information and data -- and we’ve been doing that, to a large extent, but we’ll do it even more so -- and to inform our -- I guess you could say inform each of us on the fight that we’ve got going one way or the other. It’s a little bit different, but we’re handling it a little bit in different ways.

But there is great uniformity, I think. We had a -- it was a terrific meeting. Tremendous spirit among all of those countries. You had 20 countries plus the other people that I mentioned. And tremendous spirit to get this over with.

After the meeting with the world leaders, I spoke with the governors of our 50 states and territories. Our team has been in constant communication with the governors, and we had a terrific meeting.

Somebody in the fake news said that one of the governors said, “Oh, we need Tom Brady.” I said, “Yeah.” He meant that in a positive way. He said, “We need Tom Brady. We’re going to do great.” And he meant it very positively, but they took it differently. “They think Tom Brady should be leading the effort.” That’s only fake news. And I like Tom Brady. Spoke to him the other day. He’s a great guy.

But I wish the news could be -- could be real. I wish it could be honest. I wish it weren’t corrupt, but so much of it is. It’s so sad to see. Just so sad to see.

We had a great meeting. I tell you what: I’m sure you have tapes of the meeting. I’m sure that you were able to get tapes very easily. So you had 50 governors-plus. And if you had tapes, you’d see it was really -- I mean, there was no contention. I would say virtually none. I would say maybe one person that was a little tiny bit of a raising of a voice, a little wise guy, a little bit. But he’s usually a big wise guy. Not so much anymore. We saw to it that he wouldn’t be so much anymore. But he is -- we had a -- I mean, I would rate -- Mike was there; a lot of the folks in the back were there. And it was a -- it was a great meeting. It took place at about 12 o'clock.

So we went from the G20 to the governors.