Trump travel ban that exempts U.K. is 'totally arbitrary': European Parliament VP
'Mysteriously, he wants to spare his best European friends, the British people, from this'
It doesn't make any sense for U.S. President Donald Trump to ban travel from Europe while sparing "his best European friends, the British people," says the vice-president of the European Parliament.
Trump announced the sweeping travel restrictions in an address to the nation on Wednesday night, in which he characterized the global coronavirus pandemic as a "foreign virus" and said "new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe."
The 30-day ban on travel to the U.S. from continental Europe begins at midnight on Friday and does not apply to the United Kingdom.
Finnish politician Heidi Hautala says Trump should focus his efforts on the U.S. domestic response instead. She is the vice-president of the European Parliament and she spoke to As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. Here is part of their conversation.
Despite the criticism, is it perhaps not at least a sign that President Trump is doing something that he's made this announcement to try to stop the spread of this virus?
To me it seems totally arbitrary and scary that he is now talking about a "foreign virus" as if it will be some kind of terrorist attack against the United States. And he, of course, is the one to rescue the nation from the terrible threat.
His way of trying to show that this is, indeed, kind of an attack coming from abroad ... is really quite a massive slap on the face of Europeans.
And, mysteriously, he wants to spare his best European friends, the British people, from this.
You said you find his characterisation of this scary. Why?
I believe that the United States will face approximately the same situation as China did and some European countries, one by one. It's just the question of the pace. So why doesn't he make sure that all Americans have access to do testing, that they have access to basic health care?
He's trying, in my view, to direct the attention away from the issues that he should be responsible for at home: domestic measures, prevention, care and all that. And, obviously, the Americans don't have access to universal health care, which can become a really big public security issue now.
What do you make of the list of countries that are subject to the U.S. travel ban, and those few that are excluded?
I don't think it's a very rational measure to do this kind of prohibition. I mean, I fully understand that travel restrictions now are needed. But why does he spare, for instance, the British people from this? It's totally un-understandable. So I don't think he's listened to public health experts.
So on that point, the U.K. has, as we know, hundreds of cases. Today its chief medical officer said the true number was much likely to be higher than ... what they have now. That's many more than your country, than Finland has. So why would you think that President Trump would exclude the U.K.?
He has become quite used to blaming the Europeans for many things. And now it's very comfortable for him to say that it's the Europeans who didn't take care of their own prevention of the illness, and now we are kind of exporting it to the U.S. — which is, of course, not true.
There are lots of restrictions in [place]. Today, the Finnish government has decided that there will be no more events where more than 500 people participate. And I'm pretty sure that in the coming days, many schools will be closed. The universities have emergency measures in place.
So domestic action should be something that really should be close to the heart of the president of the United States as well.
What do you think of his assertion that Europeans did not take action by blocking people travelling from Wuhan as the U.S. did?
Well, yes, but it's also true that when Chinese tourists arrived in Europe, at least the countries that I know, that they did take some measures. When there were any symptoms ... there was quarantines. So I don't think this is really the root cause of why Americans would somehow be spared from the disease.
It seems to me that President Trump is really gambling, because it sounds to me that it risks to become a very short-term victory ... in public opinion.
But I understand that many Americans are quite skeptical of his way of dealing with this emerging crisis, which will also undoubtedly hit the United States as much as it has hit the many European countries.
Would you have been more supportive of a travel ban if it had happened sooner or had applied to more countries?
I wonder if it's justified by public health experts.
What sort of made me a bit suspicious is that I saw that the adviser who guided the president in this is [Stephen Miller], his migration expert. Or should I say, anti-migration expert?
So they seem to be dealing with this question about the same way as if they would be combating international terrorists trying to hit the United States. It's not convincing to me.
You have said that you think that President Trump should be more concerned with his own country's preparedness in how it's addressing the situation. Europe, though, is dealing with most serious coronavirus outbreaks right now outside China, which appears to be improving. Obviously, it would appear the continent was not prepared for this either. So is there not something here, perhaps, of people in glass houses should not throw stones?
Let's think about the future. It may very well be that there's a more fatal virus that spreads in this way and becomes a pandemic. So now is the time, really, to see if the health systems are capable of dealing with it.
And I would say that in many European countries, the mere principle and the access of universal health care is something that doesn't discriminate against poor people, which basically is a guarantee that everybody is then protected and then everybody's also in a situation to not endanger the other people.
So there will be restrictions, but they have to be measured and reasoned. And the public, I think, has to understand why those measures are in place, and politicians are in a key position to explain that. That's what the Finnish government has been doing all day.
Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Chris Harbord. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.