{"id":98260,"date":"2020-03-28T14:10:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T21:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=98260"},"modified":"2020-03-28T14:10:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T21:10:50","slug":"president-trump-at-naval-station-norfolk-send-off-for-usns-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=98260","title":{"rendered":"President Trump at Naval Station Norfolk Send-Off for USNS Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Norfolk, VA&#8230;Thank you very much, Mark.  And you\u2019re doing a fantastic job, and our country appreciates it very much.  And thank you, everybody, for being here.  Today, I\u2019m deeply honored to be at Naval Station Norfolk \u2014 the largest naval base anywhere in the world, and the home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas.  I just passed some of the most beautiful and, frankly, the most highly lethal ships that I have ever seen in my life, and there are a lot of them.  And they\u2019re in better shape now than they have been for many, many decades, with what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ols_AaLaV1k\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re grateful to be joined by Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces, Admiral Christopher Grady, and Commander of the U.S. Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Woody Lewis.  Thank you both for being here.  We appreciate it very much.<\/p>\n<p>As we gather today, our country is at war with an invisible enemy.  We are marshalling the full power of the American nation \u2014 economic, scientific, medical, and military \u2014 to vanquish the virus.  And we will do that.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I\u2019m here to express my profound gratitude to the dedicated service members who will soon be on the frontlines of this fight.  In a few moments, the crew of the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort \u2014 which is really something \u2014 will embark for New York City, where they will join the ranks of tens of thousands of amazing doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who are battling to save American lives.<\/p>\n<p>This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York \u2014 a place I know very well, a place I love.  We\u2019re here for you, we\u2019re fighting for you, and we are with you all the way, and we always will be.  You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American people.<\/p>\n<p>After being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed \u2014 it was supposed to be here for four weeks, and they did it in four days \u2014 the Comfort will arrive at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday, three weeks ahead of schedule.  Its crew will begin treating patients on Tuesday.  It will be met in New York Harbor by Governor Cuomo, who I just spoke with; he\u2019s very excited \u2014 and they need the help.<\/p>\n<p>The skilled sailors and civilian mariners aboard this ship will provide a critical surge capacity for the New York metropolitan area.  Their mission will be to care for New Yorkers who do not have the virus but who require urgent care.  In other words, they\u2019ll be using this \u2014 people will be coming out of hospitals who don\u2019t have the virus, and they\u2019ll be on the ship where they have great operating rooms and great facilities.  And the places inbound, on land, will be where people that have the virus will be.  So the people with the virus will not be on ship.  The ship will be used for people having operations and other things other than that.<\/p>\n<p>By serving these emergency patients away from the hospitals, beds will be opened up all over the city for those who are infected.  This ship can handle a lot of people, so it will open capacity all over the city.  And it will be ready to address any life-threatening medical emergency.  It is stocked.  It\u2019s stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything you can think of.  Importantly, by treating non-infected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt, very strongly, the transmission of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>The Comfort\u2019s sister ship on the West Coast, the USNS Mercy, arrived ahead of schedule, substantially, in port yesterday.  Governor Gavin Newsom was very thankful for it.  They\u2019re working very hard in California.  It\u2019s performing a similar mission for the people of Los Angeles and the people of California.<\/p>\n<p>As the USNS Comfort gets underway, it is fully loaded with 12 operating rooms \u2014 and they are fully equipped \u2014 1,000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants, and a helicopter deck, which will be used very actively.<\/p>\n<p>It also bears our military\u2019s greatest weapon of all: a crew of nearly 1,200 outstanding members of the United States Navy.  And I thank them very much.  Among the sailors departing today are some of the finest doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, and medical staff anywhere in the world.  These are true professionals.  And no one performs better under pressure when lives are on the line.  These are incredible people.<\/p>\n<p>We will stop at nothing to protect the health of New Yorkers and the health of the people of our country in their hour of need.  I also want to remind everyone about the CDC\u2019s latest guidance: If you are from the New York metropolitan area and you travel elsewhere, we need you to<br \/>\nself-quarantine for 14 days to help us contain the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>And I am now considering \u2014 we\u2019ll make a decision very quickly, very shortly \u2014 a quarantine, because it\u2019s such a hot area, of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  We\u2019ll be announcing that, one way or the other, fairly soon.  This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the New York area who are making deliveries or simply transiting through.  It won\u2019t affect trade in any way.<\/p>\n<p>The Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA are racing to build temporary hospitals \u2014 which are now completed, by the way, in record time \u2014 four hospitals, four medical centers.  And in speaking with the governor this morning, we\u2019re giving them an additional four large tents, which they need very badly.  And the emergency medical stations in New York are top of the line.  You have them in not only New York, but in California and Illinois.  We\u2019ll be adding some to other states also.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve empowered our nation\u2019s governors with the resources to call up the National Guard and authorized the activation of Ready Reserves.  Two big words: Ready Reserves.  FEMA has shipped or delivered 11.6 million N95 respirators, 26 million surgical masks, 5.2 million face shields \u2014 and a lot are being  made of all of the things I just named right now; we have millions and millions of new medical items being made as we speak, and purchased \u2014 4.3 million surgical gowns, 22 million gloves, and 8,100 ventilators.<\/p>\n<p>We have moved rapidly to mobilize every instrument of American power.  This week, I invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to carry out federal contracts for ventilators.  And I think they\u2019re going to do a great job; I have to say that.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re also working with the major ventilator companies in the United States \u2014 all big name companies, all companies that do ventilators, so they won\u2019t need extra time, and they\u2019re gearing up and they\u2019ll be working 24 hours around the clock, and they have been; they\u2019ve been doing a fantastic job \u2014 to accomplish a historic ramp-up, and a ramp-up in the kind of numbers that we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p>And if we make too many, that\u2019s going to be okay, because I spoke with the Prime Minister of the UK yesterday, Boris Johnson.  He tested, as you know, positive.  And before I even was able to get a word out of him, he said \u2014 I said, \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d  He said, \u201cWe need ventilators.\u201d  The UK needs ventilators.  A lot of countries need ventilators badly.  It\u2019s a tough thing to make.  It\u2019s a very complicated and expensive piece of equipment.  I would say more so than a car.  You\u2019re talking about expensive, complicated equipment.  So I hope we, soon, will have enough that we can help other countries with ventilators.  A lot of countries need them.<\/p>\n<p>In the next 100 days, America will make or acquire three times more ventilators than we do in an entire year.\u2003 We are so geared up.  At Boeing, Ford, Honeywell, 3M, Hanes, and other great American companies, factory floors and manufacturing lines are being converted to produce the respirators, protective masks, face shields, and other vital equipment.  And those companies have been amazing.  And Boeing is giving us their cargo-moving planes.  They\u2019re the biggest cargo movers anywhere in the world, and we\u2019re going to be using them to ship certain types of equipment to various states.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of millions of Americans are also making tremendous sacrifices on the home front.  In a historic drive to support our great workers and businesses, I signed into law the single-largest economic relief package in American history.  You saw that yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>The $2.2 trillion \u2014 and think of that: $2.2 trillion, but it goes to $6.2 trillion, depending on what we decide.  This legislation delivers job retention loans for small businesses to help them keep workers on payroll, expanded unemployment benefits, and direct cash payments to American citizens.  And these are very substantial payments.  A family of four will be getting approximately $3,400.<\/p>\n<p>This legislation also provides massive increases in funding for hospitals who need it, for Disaster Relief Fund, and critical life-saving medical supplies.  We\u2019re spending a tremendous amount of money on medical supplies.  We\u2019re trying to get it to the point needed directly, as opposed to our supply lines, so it can go directly to where they need it without having to go through a long process.  I don\u2019t want to say \u201cbureaucratic,\u201d but we have not \u2014 this group of people has worked so incredibly hard, and the energy and the speed with which they\u2019re delivering everything has been really admired by everybody.  Everybody is talking about it \u2014 the job they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p>My administration has also taken action to dispend [sic] \u2014 and suspend federal student loan payments.  So we\u2019re suspending \u2014 and that means suspending, in every sense of the word \u2014 student loan payments so that the students that are not able to take advantage of what\u2019s going on, obviously \u2014 for obvious reasons \u2014 they will be \u2014 the payment suspended.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve temporarily stopped federal evictions and foreclosures.  We\u2019ve postponed Tax Day until July, which is a big thing; first time that\u2019s happened.  And waived regulations to speed new treatments to the market.  And we have new treatments coming on rapidly.  We\u2019re doing very well, we think, with the vaccines, and we\u2019re doing very, very well with, hopefully, or potentially, cures.  We\u2019re looking at a lot of different alternatives, a lot of different medicines.  That would be game changer.<\/p>\n<p>The battle in which we\u2019re now engaged has inflicted many hardships on our nation and our families \u2014 tremendous hardship on some families \u2014 and much death.  Much death.  But through it all, the world has witnessed the unyielding resolve of our incredible American people.  We are not only a country of vast resources; we\u2019re a nation of colossal strength, towering spirit, soaring patriotism, and exceptional character.  And you\u2019re showing it to the entire world.<\/p>\n<p>At this moment, there are 151 countries throughout the world that are under attack by this horrible, invisible enemy.  One hundred and fifty-one countries.  And we\u2019re in touch with a lot of them.  Our professionals are the best in the world.  But who would ever think 151 countries are under attack?<\/p>\n<p>We are one family, bound together by love and loyalty \u2014 the eternal traits so perfectly embodied by the extraordinary men and women aboard this ship, and the men and women at this beautiful, scenic, but really tough base.  This base is something.  Thank you very much.  This base is something very, very special.<\/p>\n<p>With the courage of our doctors and nurses, with the skill of our scientists and innovators, with the determination of the American people, and with the grace of God, we will win this war and we will win this war quickly with as little death as possible.<\/p>\n<p>And when we achieve our victory \u2014 this victory, your victory \u2014 we will emerge stronger and more united than ever before.  We are going to be at a level of preparedness in case something like this should ever happen again \u2014 and, God willing, it won\u2019t.  But we are prepared.  What we\u2019ve done in building systems, we\u2019re now the number one tester anywhere in the world, by far.  We\u2019re testing more in one day than other countries are testing in weeks, in months.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve learned a lot.  And I cannot be more thankful to the American people.  And I can say this, and I can say this from the bottom of my heart: I am very proud to be your President.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much, and God bless you all.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Norfolk, VA&#8230;Thank you very much, Mark. And you\u2019re doing a fantastic job, and our country appreciates it very much. And thank you, everybody, for being here. Today, I\u2019m deeply honored to be at Naval Station Norfolk \u2014 the largest naval base anywhere in the world, and the home to the most powerful fleet that has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-3282020-20914-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}