President Donald Trump on Asian-American Reporter's 'Nasty' COVID-19 Question: 'Ask China'

This is not the first time for Trump to patronize CBS' Weijia Jiang as during a COVID-19 news conference as last month, POTUS told her to 'relax' and 'keep your voice down.'

May 12, 2020

AceShowbiz - Donald Trump once again made headlines over his response to a question related to Coronavirus from CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang. During a Monday, May 11 press conference, the 35-year-old Chinese-born reporter asked POTUS about the U.S. COVID-19 testing.

"You've said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you when everyday Americans are still losing their lives and we're still seeing more cases everyday?" she questioned the president. In response, Trump said, "Maybe that's a question you should ask China. Don't ask me, ask China that question, okay? When you ask them that question you'll get a very unusual answer."

Not backing down, Jiang added, "Sir, why are you saying that to me specifically? That I should ask China?" to which Trump said, "I'm not saying that specifically to anybody. I'm saying it to anybody who asked a nasty question."

"That's not a nasty question," Jiang insisted. However, Trump was done as he told CNN's Kaitlan Collins, "Please go ahead" with her question. Collins said she had two questions but then Trump turned her down. Eventually, Trump abruptly ended the briefing.

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Following that, Trump received backlash for dismissing the question. One of the critics was former President Barack Obama's Chief Strategist David Axelrod who tweeted, "What a finish. He dismisses a question from @weijia, a Chinese-American reporter, about why he boasts about our testing versus others by telling her to ask China. And when @kaitlancollins @CNN approached the mic to ask her questions, the @POTUS fled."

"Notably, the woman Trump told to 'ask China' is an Asian-American woman, and the second reporter, also a woman. Gotta say, Trump always stays on brand, and he never even tries to improve what the average pluralistic adult thinks of him, because clearly he doesn't care," MSNBC's Joy Reid added.

Last month, Trump also patronized Jiang during a COVID-19 news conference by telling her to "relax" and "keep your voice down." He said, "Nice and easy. Nice and easy, just relax. Keep your voice down."