Trump White House focused on taking care of business Friday

WASHINGTON — As the Senate impeachment trial crawled on, President Donald Trump’s White House took care of business Friday and looked ahead to next week’s State of the Union address, which a senior administration official said would be “optimistic.”

Friday afternoon, Trump delayed his departure for Mar-a-Lago for Super Bowl weekend as the White House exuded a posture of being focused on the business of government.

As the financial markets plunged in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the virus a public health emergency.

“Foreign nationals other than immediate families of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have traveled in China within the last 14 days will be denied entry into the United States for this time,” Azar announced at an afternoon press conference in the White House.

Azar nonetheless tried to assure the public that “the risk to Americans for infection remains low.”

Trump also signed a proclamation that expanded the list of countries whose citizens would be banned from immigrating to the United States.

Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania were added to Trump’s 2017 “travel ban.” Under the new rule, however, travelers from the new countries could visit the U.S. as tourists.

In the morning, elder daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump kicked off a White House Summit on human trafficking in the East Room that featured one-time trafficking victims, administration officials and local authorities.

At the end of the event, Trump spoke about the “worldwide problem of human trafficking,” addressed the role of the internet and signed an executive order that, among other things, created a position dedicated to human trafficking inside the Domestic Policy Council.

With a halt to daily briefings by the White House press secretary since March 11, 2019, the James Brady briefing room at the White House has been little used for public events. But Friday, the coronavirus briefing and a background talk with a senior administration official about Trump’s Tuesday address to the Senate and House were held there.

The administration official would not predict whether Trump would address the impeachment trial during his fourth joint address to Congress.

The official, however, did say that Trump would focus on the U.S. economy and how his policies have helped working families. The theme of the address, he said, will be “the Great American comeback.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.