Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics

Trump to Declare National Emergency to Speed Virus Response

  • Stafford Act lets president give federal aid to states, cities
  • Democrats say it will unlock more than $42 billion in funding
President Trump speaks during a televised address in the Oval Office on March 11.

President Trump speaks during a televised address in the Oval Office on March 11.

Photographer: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg

Updated on

President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency on Friday over the coronavirus outbreak, invoking the Stafford Act to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The president said he will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. in Washington. Trump spoke Friday with Emmanuel Macron, the French president tweeted, about the pandemic, and agreed to organize a video conference with world leaders on Monday to coordinate research efforts on a vaccine and treatments and work on how to respond to the economic fallout.