Trump boasts deal with Kodak to fight coronavirus, calls Senate stimulus plan ‘semi-irrelevant’

President Trump defended his response to coronavirus, including his claims that COVID-19 will “disappear.” USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump returned to the briefing room Tuesday to tout his administration’s deal with camera company Kodak to manufacture pharmaceuticals and dismissed Senate Republicans’ economic stimulus proposal as “semi-irrelevant.”

The administration plans to give Eastman Kodak Co. a $765 million loan to launch a pharmaceuticals division. The loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act.

“It’s a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States,” Trump told reporters, adding that members of his administration are in Rochester, New York, where the camera company is based, to “finalize this groundbreaking deal.” 

Trump said it was the 33rd time his administration had used the Korean War-era law to spur production of medical equipment needed to combat the virus. Trump said that in many instances, the White House used the DPA as a “threat” to pressure companies to voluntarily increase production for ventilators, masks and other items. 

As the president spoke, congressional leaders wrapped up talks on Capitol Hill on the latest economic relief package to help Americans grapple with the economic fallout caused by the pandemic. 

Trump panned the $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill unveiled by Senate Republicans, telling reporters there are some provisions in the proposal he doesn’t support. 

“It’s sort of semi-irrelevant because the Democrats come with their needs and asks and the Republicans go with theirs,” he said. “We’ll be talking about it.” 

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, the two White House officials tasked with negotiations, have spent the last week meeting with congressional leaders to hash out the details of the GOP plan to ensure it addresses the president’s demands.

The Health, Economic Assistance, Liability protection, and Schools Act, or HEALS Act, includes another round of direct checks to Americans, more help for small businesses and money to help encourage schools to return to the classroom in the fall – a top priority for the administration. House Democrats in May approved their own version of a relief package with a price tag of $3 trillion. 

Mnuchin and Meadows appeared to make little progress in their meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The four are due to meet again on Wednesday, according to Pelosi.

Congress is under mounting pressure to pass a bill quickly as federal unemployment insurance expires this week for millions of Americans made jobless by the pandemic. Democrats want to extend the weekly $600 federal unemployment bonus through January while Republicans have settled on capping assistance at 70% of workers’ pay.

When asked what he thought of the president’s comments calling the Senate GOP plan “semi-irrelevant,” Meadows said: “I think everybody recognizes there’s a long way between $1 trillion and $3 trillion and to suggest that there’s room for negotiation, it actually is going to be built from the ground up.” 

Asked if both sides were any closer to a stimulus deal following the meeting, Meadows told reporters: “I don’t know if I would characterize it as getting closer.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House, July 22, 2020, in Washington.

 (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

Trump also reiterated his support for using hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus a day after Twitter removed a post the president retweeted in which a group called “America’s Frontline Doctors” said “there is a cure” for the coronavirus without citing any evidence. 

Twitter said Trump’s tweet “was in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.”

Trump told reporters that “many doctors think it is extremely successful.” 

“I took it for a 14-day period, and I’m here. Right? I’m here,” he said of the antimalarial drug, noting that he took it earlier this year. “I don’t think you lose anything by doing it, other than politically. It doesn’t seem to be too popular you know why? Because I recommend it.”

The president has continued to promote hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, despite warnings from his own medical experts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, stressed the drug is “not effective” in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“The overwhelming, prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease,” he said. 

Fauci’s interview came hours after Trump retweeted a post that said Fauci had “misled the American public” on the drug, among other things. When asked if he believed that Fauci misled the public, Trump dismissed the accusation before praising Fauci’s approval rating. 

“He’s got this high approval rating, so why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect – and the administration – with respect to the virus?” he asked. 

“It sort of is curious – a man works for us, with us very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. (Deborah) Birx, also highly thought of – and yet they’re highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality,” he added. 

Contributing: Nicholas Wu, Ledyard King

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