特朗普依舊不承認自己低估了新冠疫情
On February 23, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro addressed a memo to President Donald Trump warning that as many as 2 million Americans could die from the coronavirus. Trump wants you to believe it was never brought to his attention.
2月23日，白宮貿易顧問彼得·納瓦羅在發給唐納德·特朗普總統的備忘錄中警告說，多達200萬美國人會死於新冠肺炎。特朗普想讓民衆相信他從未見過這個備忘錄。
That memo and another similarly dire memo Navarro authored in January were published on Monday by Axios. Asked about them during the latest White House coronavirus task force briefing, Trump played dumb.
週一，Axios（美國新聞網站）發表了這個備忘錄和納瓦羅在一月份發出的另一個類似的緊急備忘錄。在最近一次白宮新冠疫情特別工作組的情況通報會上被問及這兩份備忘錄時，特朗普卻裝傻。
“I didn’t see ’em, but I heard some memos talking about pandemic [sic],” Trump said on Tuesday. “I didn’t see ’em, I didn’t look for ’em either. But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it, that was about the same time that we closed it down.”
特朗普週二說：“我沒看到，但我聽到了一些討論疫情的備忘錄（他的原話）。我沒看到，也沒有去找。但在備忘錄發出的時候我也想到了應該採取措施，那時候我們就停止營業了。”
It’s true that by February 23, Trump had restricted travel from China. But the virus was already spreading within the United States. And Trump’s public statements belie the revisionist history he’s now offering about how he took the coronavirus seriously from the beginning.
這是真的，在2月23日之前，特朗普就已經限制中國來的人入境，但當時病毒已經在美國境內傳播了。特朗普現在說他從一開始就如何重視新冠疫情，他的公開聲明歪曲了修正主義歷史。
For instance, during a news conference on February 26, Trump said, “when you have 15 [coronavirus cases], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
比如，在2月26日的新聞發佈會上，特朗普說：“出現15個新冠病例時，這個數字在幾天內會降至零，那我們的工作就做得很好了。”
But instead of going down “close to zero,” the United States now has nearly 400,000 cases less than two months out from Trump uttering those words. During Tuesday’s briefing, a reporter pressed him on this point.
但特朗普發表完這些言論還不到兩個月，美國確診人數不但沒有“降至零”，相反現在已接近40萬。週二的情況通報會上，一位記者就這一點質問了特朗普。
“When Peter Navarro did circulate those memos, you were still downplaying the threat of coronavirus in the US,” the reporter said. “You were saying things like, ‘I think it’s a problem that is going to go away within a couple of days —’”
記者說：“彼得·納瓦羅發出那些備忘錄時，你仍淡化新冠病毒對美國的威脅。你當時說‘我認爲這個問題幾天內就會消失……’”
“Which I’m right about,” Trump interjected.
特朗普打斷他說：“我說的對呀。”
The reporter continued: “You said ‘within a couple of days the cases will be down to zero.’”
記者繼續說：“你說‘幾天內確診人數會降至零。’”
Given the current magnitude of coronavirus cases in the US, you might think Trump’s comment about coronavirus going away on its own would be too much even for him to try and defend. You’d be wrong.
考慮到美國目前新冠肺炎病例數，你可能認爲特朗普的新冠病毒會自行消失的說法讓他很難自圓其說，那你就錯了。
“Well, the cases really didn’t build up for a while,” Trump replied.
特朗普的回答是：“嗯，有一段時間確診人數確實沒增加。”
