President Trump took off Wednesday on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, inaccurately saying she invited people to “parties” in San Francisco’s Chinatown in late February after he had taken his first significant steps to try to limit the U.S. spread of the coronavirus.

Trump said at his daily White House news briefing that after he barred travelers from China on Feb. 2 and set up screening rules for U.S. citizens returning from the country, “Nancy Pelosi was trying to have in San Francisco parties in Chinatown because she thought it would be great.”

Trump was misleadingly describing a tour of Chinatown that Pelosi made Feb. 24 with local merchants, having lunch and visiting shops and businesses as customers vanished from the area.

“We should come to Chinatown,” she said outside the Dim Sum Corner Restaurant on Grant Avenue. “Precautions have been taken by our city. We know that there is concern surrounding tourism ... but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come.”

The speaker’s tour took place more than three weeks before Bay Area health officers told people to shelter in place starting March 17 and ordered nonessential businesses to send employees home.

Pelosi asked for everyone to “please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown. ... It’s beautiful and there are some good bargains here now.” But she also had a more serious purpose: warning against discriminating against Asian American people and businesses because of the coronavirus, which first erupted in China.

Asked if it was irrational for people to avoid Asian American businesses, Pelosi said, “This fear is — I think — is unwarranted in light of the precautions being taken here in the United States.” While there was concern about whether China had done all it could against the virus, Pelosi added, “that should not be carried over to Chinatown and San Francisco.”

Trump, pushing back against criticism from Pelosi and others that he was slow to respond to the coronavirus crisis, said Wednesday that the San Francisco Democrat was in no position to judge his actions.

The Chinatown visit, the president said, showed that Pelosi wasn’t concerned about the virus.

“She wanted to show that (the coronavirus) doesn’t exist,” Trump said.

Taylor Griffin, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, said afterward that “the Asian American community is battling the pandemic on multiple fronts as their health, dignity and safety are under attack with the rise of anti-Asian racism. As she communicated during her visit to Chinatown three weeks prior to the shelter-in-place order, Speaker Pelosi remains staunchly committed to combating bigotry while ensuring the safety and economic well-being” of the Asian American-Pacific Islander community.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth