Trump ‘brought Covid-19 upon himself’, Japan business lobby chief says

Hiroaki Nakanishi said the US president did not take enough precautionary steps against the coronavirus

Trump has been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Friday


Kyodo Published: 5 Oct, 2020

Supporters of Donald Trump rally outside Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, where the US president is being treated for Covid-19. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump, in hospital for treatment of Covid-19, did not take enough precautionary steps against the coronavirus and brought it upon himself, the head of Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren said on Monday.

“I believe he must have been careless. In a sense, he had it coming,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, said during an online press conference, noting that Trump was not seen wearing a face mask when attending large gatherings.
Last week, 

Trump and first lady Melania tested positive for the virus.

Trump, 74, has been treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Friday with only a month to go until the US presidential election in early November.

Before he contracted the virus that has claimed the lives of over 1 million people globally, he repeatedly played down its risks and ditched wearing face masks. In the US alone, over 200,000 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

With the spread of coronavirus infections yet to be contained, “We will have to live with the novel coronavirus for a while,” Nakanishi said online from the hospital where he has been receiving treatment for lymphoma.