Trump skipped a coronavirus meeting with G20 leaders to play golf
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Nov 23, 2020
But on Friday evening, the White House released a schedule confirming his participation.
The event featured the views of leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and its interpretation focused on the "integrated response to corona virus infection and advanced global epidemic production".
A source with access to the online sessions, which were closed to the media, reported that Trump had "said that he had done an absolutely incredible job during his term, economically and with the pandemic". Trump did not participate. During his 2016 campaign for the White House, Trump attacked his predecessor Barack Obama for his frequent links, and insisted that Golf should have some time to play himself president because he would work so hard.
He is due to attend the G20 summit again Sunday morning, according to White House time.
Before he left the White House to go to the golf course, Trump implied to leaders that he will be working with them in the future, a reference to the losing fight he has put up against the results of the presidential election.
He also boasted about Operation Warp Speed, the USA government's push for a coronavirus vaccine, that only funded one of two potentially successful candidates.
'His was the anomalous speech, ' one source told The Guardian.
"During his remarks, President Trump highlighted how the United States marshalled every resource at its disposal to respond to the crisis, as well as the unprecedented economic recovery of the United States on a foundation of tax and regulatory cuts, energy independence, and fair trade deals", the spokeswoman said in a statement.
'He spoke about the aggressive actions and safety measures the United States took to protect the vulnerable, pioneer groundbreaking treatments, and develop vaccines and therapies at record-setting speed, which will save millions of lives, ' the readout also said.
The global death toll from COVID-19 stands at over 1,378,800.
No speaker directly referred to Joe Biden winning at least 6 million more votes than Trump and the Electoral College By 306 votes to 232 Trump.
He has attended official events three times, but has otherwise spent a portion of each weekend on his Virginia golf course.