特朗普依旧不承认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，白宫贸易顾问彼得·纳瓦罗在发给唐纳德·特朗普总统的备忘录中警告说，多达200万美国人会死于新冠肺炎。特朗普想让民众相信他从未见过这个备忘录。
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.
周一，Axios（美国新闻网站）发表了这个备忘录和纳瓦罗在一月份发出的另一个类似的紧急备忘录。在最近一次白宫新冠疫情特别工作组的情况通报会上被问及这两份备忘录时，特朗普却装傻。
“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.”
特朗普周二说：“我没看到，但我听到了一些讨论疫情的备忘录（他的原话）。我没看到，也没有去找。但在备忘录发出的时候我也想到了应该采取措施，那时候我们就停止营业了。”
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.
这是真的，在2月23日之前，特朗普就已经限制中国来的人入境，但当时病毒已经在美国境内传播了。特朗普现在说他从一开始就如何重视新冠疫情，他的公开声明歪曲了修正主义历史。
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日的新闻发布会上，特朗普说：“出现15个新冠病例时，这个数字在几天内会降至零，那我们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.
但特朗普发表完这些言论还不到两个月，美国确诊人数不但没有“降至零”，相反现在已接近40万。周二的情况通报会上，一位记者就这一点质问了特朗普。
“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 —’”
记者说：“彼得·纳瓦罗发出那些备忘录时，你仍淡化新冠病毒对美国的威胁。你当时说‘我认为这个问题几天内就会消失……’”
“Which I’m right about,” Trump interjected.
特朗普打断他说：“我说的对呀。”
The reporter continued: “You said ‘within a couple of days the cases will be down to zero.’”
记者继续说：“你说‘几天内确诊人数会降至零。’”
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.
考虑到美国目前新冠肺炎病例数，你可能认为特朗普的新冠病毒会自行消失的说法让他很难自圆其说，那你就错了。
“Well, the cases really didn’t build up for a while,” Trump replied.
特朗普的回答是：“嗯，有一段时间确诊人数确实没增加。”
