Daily Times

US President Donald Trump said on Friday (May 1) raising tariffs on China is “certainly an option” as he considers ways to retaliate for the spread of COVID-19.

“A lot of things are happening with respect to China. We’re not happy, obviously with what happened. This is a bad situation — all over the world, 183 countries. But we’ll be having a lot to say about that. It’s certainly an option. It’s certainly an option,” Trump told reporters.

Trump, cooped up in the White House for weeks due to the coronavirus lockdown, flew to Camp David, Maryland, on Friday for a weekend away at the presidential retreat.

When his Marine One helicopter left the South Lawn, it was the first time Trump had left the White House grounds since March 28, when he visited Norfolk, Virginia, to see the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort set sail for New York harbor.

Earlier in the week, Trump said the US might seek damages from China after the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which started in Wuhan.

The death toll in the United States climbed by 1,883 in the past 24 hours, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed on Friday (May 1) night, bringing the total number of fatalities to nearly 65,000.

The Baltimore-based university had recorded more than 1.1 million cases in the country as of 8.30 pm Friday, with 64,789 deaths, a rise of three per cent from a day earlier.

The US has by far the highest death toll of any country in the global pandemic.