Trump: US economy will 'transition into greatness'

President Donald Trump says the United States will "beat" the coronavirus and predicts the economy will soon "transition into greatness."

The president addressed a Rose Garden audience filled with mask-wearing administration officials on Monday after two known cases of COVID-19 were reported among staffers in one of the most-protected complexes in America.

"There's a pent up demand. There's a spirit in this country like few have seen," Trump says. "There's a tremendous spirit all over the world to beat this terrible, terrible thing."

Trump commented even as the White House itself became a potent symbol of the risk facing Americans everywhere by belatedly ordering everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask.

Trump also says he is not willing to renegotiate a trade deal with China.

"They'd like to reopen the trade talks to make it a better deal for them," he says. "I'm not interested in that. Let's see if they live up to the deal that they signed."