Perspective on what President Donald Trump meant during the March 20, 2020 Coronavirus Task Force press conference

Jessica Hockett, PhD

I’ve shared my opinion on Donald Trump’s “should have let us know” comment during a March 2020 press conference elsewhere, but I want to document it more formally here, because it comes up on Twitter and Substack fairly often. (For example, in a Sage Hana post today.) 

If my interpretation is proven wrong or shown to be unreasonable, I will return to this post and revise as necessary.

For readers who don’t know or need a refresher, the context is a March 20, 2020 White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defers to Alex Azar, Secretary of Health, to respond to a reporter’s question about when the CDC knew about “coronavirus” cases in China and when the CDC began to let other agencies know. 

[1:02:11] REPORTER: I have two questions. The first is to Secretary Pompeo. NewsHour has learned that the CDC picked up that there was some sort of virus happening in Wuhan – the coronavirus happening in Wuhan as early as December. When did the CDC start letting other agencies know that there was something in China happening – that this coronavirus was happening? And then when did the whole-of-government approach start to happen?

POMPEO: So I’ll let the CDC – or, Dr. Fauci, do you want to talk to that?

REPORTER: [inaudible]

POMPEO: Yeah, Secretary Azar, please. Yeah.

AZAR: So we were alerted by some discussions that Dr. Redfield, the Director of the CDC, had with Chinese colleagues on January 3rd. It’s since been known that there may have been cases in December, not that we were alerted in December.

REPORTER: Then, Mr. President, the other question I had for you. When – 

TRUMP: Excuse me – we’ll do it in a second. Let Mike – he has to get back – he has to get back to work.

POMPEO: May I just say – may I just say one more thing? There’s been some discussion about China and what they knew and when they knew it. And I’ve been very critical. We need to know immediately. The world is entitled to know. The Chinese government was the first to know of this risk to the world. And that puts a special obligation to make sure that data – that data gets to our scientists, our professionals. This is not about retribution. This matters going forward. We’re in a – we’re in a live exercise here –

TRUMP: Should have –

POMPEO: – to get this right.

[1:03:35] TRUMP: Should have let us know.

Many social media users have commented on Pompeo’s use of the phrase “live exercise” — including me when I first learned about it.

Because I suspect that (among other things) the federal government’s 15 Days to Slow the Spread proclamation  earlier that week was a euphemism that activated federal military operation in New York City, I take Pompeo literally.

A counterargument is that Pompeo is simply invoking language consistent with his military and CIA backgrounds, as in “Folks, we’re in an emergency situation here with Department of Defense and a lot of federal resources.”

Whatever he meant by “live exercise,” Pompeo’s emphasis at this point in the press conference is on what China knew and when they knew it. 

He uses the word “know” (or some form thereof) five times before Trump reacts. 

POMPEO: May I just say – may I just say one more thing? There’s been some discussion about China and what they knew [1] and when they knew [2] it. And I’ve been very critical. We need to know [3] immediately. The world is entitled to know [4]. The Chinese government was the first to know [5] of this risk to the world. And that puts a special obligation to make sure that data – that data gets to our scientists, our professionals. This is not about retribution. This matters going forward. We’re in a – we’re in a live exercise here –

Given the context, I interpret’s Trump’s “should have let us know” to simply be Trump agreeing with what Pompeo is saying about China, i.e., “[Yes, Mike. China] should have let us know.”

I do not take Trump to be talking to or about Pompeo, the CDC, the Department of Defense, any other federal agency, or another individual. 

Entire press conference and transcript accessible on C-SPAN.

Further Commentary, 13 February 2026

My interpretation of “should have let us know” is unchanged, but I encourage people to view this — and every press conference during spring 2020 — as a scripted performance in which officials were advancing a carefully constructed plan and storyline: a sudden, fast-spreading, disease-causing agent emerging from China and sweeping the globe.

The degree to which individual State Actors understood themselves to be delivering scripted messages is less important than the fact that their statements consistently reinforced and protected what I contend is the Core Lie:

Heard through the filter of the above false claim, the elements of the script become easier to recognize. If the U.S. government truly believed (then or now) that China was responsible for triggering a global pandemic, its words and actions would likely look very different.

As NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya recently demonstrated, U.S. officials appear to remain firmly within the same frameworks.

Jay Bhattacharya’s ongoing protection of the untouchable core claim that keeps COVID-19 debates within ‘acceptable’ limits

The approved Pro-Narrative and Permitted Dissent positions (outlined here and here) are intact, with the latter continuing to be reinforced by most COVID “contrarian” individuals and organizations.