Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

After the coronavirus rapidly spread across his country, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday night delivered a rare national address to reassure the US public and calm skittish financial markets. But the roughly 10-minute speech was anything but reassuring and calming. 

What it revealed was that the US government continues to downplay the public health crisis and its economic fallout and would not change its current bungled response. Regardless of the motivations behind this approach, whether it's a deliberate move for political expediency during a heated presidential election or just a complete miscalculation, it poses serious risks for not just the US economy but the global economy as a whole.

In the televised speech, Trump largely resorted to old tactics - downplaying the risks, boasting about the US economy, blaming foreign countries for problems in the US and closing borders. He declared that the risk of catching the virus was "very, very low" for the vast majority of Americans, asserted that US banks and financial institutions were "incredibly strong," labelled the coronavirus "a foreign virus" started in China, and criticized the EU for failing to restrict travel from China like the US did.

Most of these claims are grossly misleading, if not flat-out wrong. It's true that the first confirmed case of coronavirus was reported in China but the original source of the virus is still not scientifically clear. As Trump noted, the US restricted travel to and from China very early on. However, the number of confirmed cases and deaths are still rising in the US and large gatherings are being canceled. It's fair to say the risk is still high. The US stock market is in bear territory and businesses activity is being disrupted, so the economy is not as strong as Trump claimed. 

Still based on these flawed assessments, the US president announced some measures, including suspending "all travel from Europe" to the US for a month, "discussing" restrictions on "anything" coming from Europe including trade and cargo, waiving "all co-payments for coronavirus treatment," potential suspension of payroll taxes and providing $50 billion in additional loans for small businesses.

Maybe all these steps are necessary, but they do not address the core issue that started all this. What's noticeably missing was a concrete plan to contain the outbreak within the US. As many have noted, a China-style mass quarantine is impossible in the US because it's just not the "American way" and, more importantly, it could hinder economic activity and that would not be very good for Trump's reelection campaign. 

This might be true. After all, restrictive measures could have a huge economic cost in the short term. However, without containing the virus, the root cause, the cost could be much higher and lasting. Surely that will not help Trump's reelection, the US economy or the global economy.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn 


Newspaper headline: Trump’s speech reveals serious risks for US economy