“Oh f***": Donald Trump caught in awkward blunder
President Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic fretting over an ink stain on his suit shirt just moments before his Oval Office address on the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday night.
“Oh f***…uh oh, I got a pen mark,” he was heard saying.
“Anybody, anybody have any white stuff?”
The president made another unscripted comment after the speech - seeming to be completely unaware that a C-SPAN camera was still streaming.
Trump finished his remarks and waited silently until a voice off-camera said: “We're clear.”
He let out an exaggerated exhale and said: “Okayyy!” as a man stepped into the frame and removed the microphone from inside his blazer.
During his address, Trump took a much more serious tone as he announced there was to be an immediate shut-down of all travel from Europe to the United States in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,” Trump stated.
The world leader conceded that world health officials had declared the health crisis a pandemic after insisting for days that it would “go away” and urged Americans not to panic.
The ban that will come into place Friday will apply to travelers who have visited 26 countries in the EU's Schengen border-free area in the last 14 days, but not travelers from the UK or Ireland, or to US citizens, American permanent residents and their immediate family members.
Trump said the ban would come into effect at “midnight” on Friday.
However, confusion remains over exactly how the ban will be implemented - including how the cut-off would apply across time zones, which routes Americans would be allowed to use to get home, and whether travelers returning from Europe will be facing screening or quarantine.
Americans all throughout Europe began scrambling to airports in a bid to get home as soon as the Oval address was made.
Trump's address also made no mention of other measures being taken on by other countries to stop the spread of the virus within their borders.
This includes closing schools, banning public gatherings and restricting travel between cities.
However, Trump did announce co-payment wavers for coronavirus treatment, but he made only a brief mention of test kits and did not clarify as to whether the waver would apply to testing.
Trump also has not announced any ban on public gatherings, or whether there are any travel restrictions within the US.
He did urge Americans to avoid crowded places if possible, and told elderly people to take great caution.
“The virus will not have a chance against us - no nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States,” he said.
He explained the new measure as a matter of protecting the nation from the rapidly spreading virus - which he called 'foreign.'
“This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,” he declared.
“I will always put the well-being of America first,” he continued.
“We are mobilising the full power of the federal government and private sector to protect the American people.”