President Trump gave the impression of minimizing the unprecedented number of coronavirus deaths in the United States in an interview published Monday, saying the rate of about 1,000 Americans dying each day from the pandemic “is what it is.” The president also rejected knowledge of the highest rates of coronavirus deaths relative to the U.S. population.
Trump commented in an interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, who challenged the president for his claims that the pandemic is control, even as infections rise in many states and the United States leads the world in showed cases and deaths.
Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39
“Well, what’s your definition of control?” Trump told Swan. “I think it’s under control.”
“How?” Asked. Swan says. “A thousand Americans die every day.”
“They die. That’s right,” the president replied. “And that’s what it is. But that doesn’t mean we’re not doing everything we can. It is under the disposal as much as possible. It’s a terrible scourge that haunts us.”
The United States overtakes all other countries in coronavirus cases, with more than 4.7 million infections and 155,000 deaths Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. This represents approximately 25% of the overall number of deaths from the virus.
Mr. Trump and Swan also clashed over data about the pandemic in the U.S., with the president preferring to use statistics that make the death rate seem less severe.
“America is the lowest in many categories,” Trump said, pointing out articles with charts and charts. “We are inferior to the world, we are inferior to Europe.”
Swan noted that Trump focused on the proportion of deaths in the United States relative to the country’s general bodies, rather than the proportion of deaths relative to the U.S. population, which shows a worse picture.
“You can’t do that,” Trump said. “You have to go through the cases.”
Swan said that, as an example, South Korea has reported just 300 deaths in a population of more than 51 million people. Mr. Trump seemed to suggest, without evidence, that South Korea was reporting inaccurate numbers.
Mr. Trump has relentlessly defended his handling of the pandemic and presented a positive outlook that is at odds with data and the warnings of his own health officials. The president this week falsely claimed that the virus is “receding,” while members of the White House coronavirus task force said the pandemic is in a new phase where it is widespread in rural as well as urban areas.