Trump on China's Alleged Disinformation on COVID-19: 'Every Country Does It'

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed reports that Russia, China and Iran are engaged in campaigns to distort the truth about the new coronavirus (COVID-19), saying that all countries spread disinformation. 

During an interview on Fox News, TV host Brian Kimleade asked Trump to comment on a recent report in the Washington Post alleging that Moscow, Beijing and Tehran are waging a "sophisticated disinformation campaign" to blame the US for the coronavirus.

"Number one, you don't know what they're doing", Trump said, adding that many reports in the Washington Post are "fake" news. "They do it and we do it, and we call them different things. ... Every country does that."

The US State Department has lashed out at Chinese officials for alleging that coronavirus may have originated from the American military who inadvertently brought it to the city of Wuhan, the location of the first outbreak. The United States strongly denies the allegation.

According to Johns Hopkins University, 741,030 people around the world have been infected with COVID-19 and 35,305 have died from the disease.