Trump Just Told A Blatant Lie, And Suggested 80,000 Coronavirus Deaths Is Something To Be 'Proud' Of

The U.S. has one of the worst per capita ratings in the world in terms of dealing with coronavirus. Trump just said it was one of the best.

President Donald Trump made a very strong claim about his response to coronavirus, suggesting that the number of deaths seen so far in the country as a result of the disease wasn't as bad as it seemed, if you looked at per capita rankings.

Here's what Trump had to say, from The Washington Post:

I think one of the things we’re most proud of is, this just came out — deaths per 100,000 people, death. So deaths per 100,000 people — Germany and the United States are at the lowest rung of that ladder. Meaning low is a positive, not a negative. Germany, the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which frankly, to me, that’s perhaps the most important number there is.

Image of Trump via
Gage Skidmore/Flickr

How one can view a high number of deaths like we've seen — over 81,000 as of Monday — as something to be "proud" of is controversial, to say the least. Basing it off of per capita rankings is also a bad idea, as the United States actually ranks in the Top Ten of nations in terms of highest rates on the globe.

In short, Trump is lying here. America's per capita ranking is not something to boast about — we're nowhere near where Germany is at, for instance. In fact, our rate is 165 percent higher than Germany's, and 80 percent higher than Canada's. Heck, we even have a higher per capita rating than Mexico at the moment.

Trump is trying to paint a rosy picture because Americans are starting to get wise to him. They're starting to realize that his actions — or rather, inaction early on — is directly responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in this country so far.

According to a Navigator poll released last week, most Americans have described Trump's response in negative terms:

• 57 percent describe his response to coronavirus is "erratic;"
• 61 said Trump was "unprepared" for the pandemic;
• 57 percent describe his response as "chaotic;"
• 63 percent say he's been "self-absorbed" in responding to coronavirus;
• and 52 percent say he's been "irresponsible" in how he's handled responding to the disease.

Trump is lying to the American people because, it turns out, they understand he's completely inept to handling this crisis. So he's hoping that, by repeating a lie often enough, they're going to start believing him when he says this is actually a success story rather than a failure of leadership.

The problem for Trump, however, is that this is a quantifiable outcome for him. People have died due to his incompetence — again, a figure that's (so far) in the tens of thousands.

While he called criticisms of his behavior in late February a "new hoax" against him, he wasted valuable time preparing for COVID-19 reaching America's shores. And now he wants to play the role of the hero in this entire ordeal.

No amount of lying or retelling of a story can change the fact that this president is no hero. If anything, he's been a bumbling fool. Don't let him tell you otherwise.

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