Trump says he built greatest economy, which was 'horribly' interrupted by 'plague' from China

Washington, Nov 3: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had built the world''s greatest economy, which was "horribly" interrupted by the "plague" that came from China.

Trump''s remarks came as Americans were voting in large numbers in one of the most divisive bitter presidential polls in decades in which he is challenged by Democrat Joe Biden.

"We built the greatest economy in the world, it was horribly interrupted by something that should have never happened, came in from China, the plague. The plague from China," Trump told Fox News in an interview, his first on the election day.

Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year and accused Beijing of suppressing the details of the contagion.

The US is the worst-affected country from the virus with over 2,31,000 deaths and over 9 million infections. The pandemic devastated the country''s economy, resulting in the loss of millions of jobs.

Trump defended his decision to shut down the economy earlier this year, pointing to the lives that were saved as a result.

"A horrible situation and we had to shut it down and we had to learn about it. We had to shut it down and we did the right thing, we saved two million people, we saved a lot of people... original model was 2.2 million people...We had the best economy,... nobody had ever seen anything like it. And now what happens is we build it up again and we are doing it in a record clip," Trump said.

Referring to the latest GDP figures, Trump said that the US economy grew by 33.1 per cent in the third quarter of this year.

"That''s the biggest number we have ever had...And we are on a shape to build this up to a level that nobody has ever seen anything like it. I really think that we''re going to end up with an economy that will be better than last year. And last year was a record. Last year was the best economy we''ve already had," he said.

Trump claimed that the fight against the coronavirus pandemic has entered its last phase. "We have a chance to build something that will be fantastic. Now, in addition to that, we are doing very well and I say rounding the corner. Some people don''t like that phrase. But I use that phrase. We are coming out with vaccines, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before," he said.

There are three main companies coming out with them, he said.

"They''re going to be activated very quickly, distributed and activated very quickly," he said.

Responding to a question, the president asserted that the country has to go back to normalcy. "Children back to school. You have to get the people -- they have to go to work. We have to open up our states. That''ll happen," he said.