Donald Trump awkwardly forced Lietenant General to discuss the border wall as he gave a presentation on the Army Corps of Engineers’ construction of emergency hospitals. (Picture: AP)

Donald Trump awkwardly interrupted an Army General as he spoke about building hospitals for coronavirus patients to urge him to discuss the Mexican border wall instead.

The president introduced Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, the 54th Chief of Engineers of the US Army, during Monday’s press briefing to speak about the construction of makeshift hospitals across the country.

Semonite explained that Army engineers have already erected 52 emergency hospitals with a 17,262-bed capacity – but the president, who was standing feet away from the podium, then cut in to ask General Semonite about the border wall.

‘You mind saying, while you’re here, we’re building, the general is in charge of the southern border,’ Trump said.




‘And we want to build 450 miles of wall and it’s very much under construction. You might give them a little bit of an update. How are we doing with the wall?’

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Without missing a beat, General Semonite responded: ‘So sir, I think the most important thing, and you stressed this…there’s really several different priorities here.’

‘Our number one priority in the Department of Defense in the Corps of Engineers is protect the team, protect the force. No matter what we do we got to continue to take care of our civilians and our service members out there.’

The general went on to say that there are 4,000 contractors working on the wall and none have been paused because of the Covid-19 outbreak. He then added that the Army plans to have the 450 miles of wall completed by December. Trump then chimes in to say there are 160 miles built already, and General Semonite said 164 miles of the wall is currently built.

Trump continued to push the general to talk about the wall before asking if he wanted to stay for the remainder of the press conference – but the general snubbed the offer.

‘You have a choice. You can stay and watch, Want to watch these wonderful people ask us really nice questions or you can go back to building things,’ Trump said.

‘Sir, I have a lot of building to do. I’m going to leave if you don’t mind,’ General Semonite said before exiting the stage.

‘He’s a terrific gentleman. We have a lot of great people doing that kind of thing that they really have to get recognition for,’ Trump said before continuing the briefing.