Covid-19: Trump says US will sue China and demand more billions in compensation than Germany’s asking

Donald Trump has claimed China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe in his first press conference since the ‘disinfectant storm’.

The US president said his administration was conducting “serious investigations” into what happened when the outbreak first occurred in Wuhan at the end of last year.

“We are not happy with China,” he continued. “We believe it could have been stopped at the source.

“It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world.”

Responding to a question about reports in Germany that a lawsuit worth billions could be lodged against China, Trump said: “We have ways of doing things a lot easier than that.

“Germany’s looking at things, and we’re looking at things, and we’re talking about a lot more money than Germany’s talking about.

“We haven’t determined the final amount yet. It’s very substantial.

“If you look at the world, I mean, this is worldwide damage. This is damage to the U.S., but this is damage to the world.”

The president was appearing before US journalists for the first time since storming out of the White House briefing room over questions about his suggestion of injecting cleaning products and using intense light to treat coronavirus.