President @realDonaldTrump made a commitment to donate his salary while in office. Honoring that promise and to further protect the American people, he is donating his 2019 Q4 salary to @HHSGov to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/R6KUQmBRl1

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 3, 2020

President Trump has donated his quarterly paycheck to efforts to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Tuesday that Trump sent his $100,000 in pay to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump “is donating his 2019 Q4 salary to @HHSGov to support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus,” Grisham tweeted.

Trump is the third president to refuse a salary, following Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy. His quarterly gifts to the Treasury Department double as a messaging opportunity to highlight his initiatives.

The coronavirus gift won’t go far, however. Trump requested $2.5 billion for US efforts, but has publicly agreed to accept $8.5 billion offered by Democrats. White House budget officials say they believe the larger figure is intended to span multiple years.

Trump, projecting confidence that the crisis is under control as stocks plunge, will visit the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center and Viral Pathogenesis Lab in suburban Maryland on Tuesday afternoon.

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Since Saturday, the virus has killed seven people in the US. There are at least 89 confirmed cases, but individuals in California and Washington state have no known links to infected individuals. Researchers say hundreds more may be infected.

Globally there are about 90,000 cases of the coronavirus, with more than 3,000 deaths. The vast majority are in China, where the virus was first discovered in late December.