Trump to deliver remarks on coronavirus in White House briefing room

President Trump and members of his administration’s coronavirus task force will brief members of the media in the White House briefing room on Wednesday.

The appearance marks only the second time that Trump has appeared in the briefing room and comes amid growing concerns about the global spread of the coronavirus and pressure surrounding his administration’s efforts to contain it.

Trump said earlier Wednesday that he would hold a news conference on the coronavirus with U.S. health officials; the White House later issued updated guidance announcing the press briefing, which will take place at 6:30 p.m. 

The president made a surprise appearance in the briefing room once before in January 2019, when he congratulated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on her election. The president did not take questions at the time and it is unclear whether he will take questions on Wednesday evening.

Publicly, Trump has sought to project optimism and downplay the threat of the coronavirus, trying to stave off concerns even as stock markets declined this week amid fears about its spread globally.

Over the past two days, Trump has also accused Democrats of not giving his administration due credit and angrily asserted that the media is deliberately portraying the situation negatively in order to “panic” the stock market in a tweet early Wednesday.

But there have been mixed messages coming from the White House and federal officials about the severity of the virus and the administration’s efforts to contain it over the past several days.

Trump claimed during a two-day trip to India that the virus was “very well under control” in the United States; hours later, a CDC official, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, told reporters that the spread of the virus inside the U.S. was believed to be inevitable.

“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but more really a question of when it will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Messonnier told reporters during a briefing.

On Monday, the White House asked Congress for $2.5 billion in emergency funding to develop a vaccine and support other response and preparedness efforts.

But lawmakers from both parties have questioned whether that amount would be sufficient. The budget request prompted harsh criticism from Democrats, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) unveiled his own request for $8.5 billion to respond to the virus Wednesday.

Trump’s coronavirus task force is composed of several administration officials working on national security and health issues, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and White House National Security adviser Robert O’Brien. It is unclear precisely which officials will be present for Wednesday’s briefing.