Trump Plays Down Devastation Caused By COVID-19 As An ‘Artificial Problem’

President Donald Trump shrugs after a press conference following the historic US-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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President Donald Trump shrugged off the havoc brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. on Thursday night.

During a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity, a member of the audience asked Trump what he thought his biggest accomplishment as president was.

Along with claiming his administration has saved a “tremendous number of lives,” the President rambled about the number of judges he’s appointed and his tax cuts.

“So we’ve done a lot and we’re very proud of it and we had the best until this artificial problem ‘cause I call it an artificial problem,” Trump said.

“We had to turn off our country to save millions of lives and now we’ve turned it back on,” he continued. “And it’s coming back much faster than anybody thought possible.”

But the number of COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed in recent days as some states rush to reopen their economies. According to John Hopkins University’s tracker, there are approximately 2,422,000 cases of the virus in the U.S. and over 124,000 deaths.

Additionally, millions of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19.

Watch Trump below:

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Notable Replies

  1. Trump is the Fake aka Artificial POTUS because he is a Russian-Installed IMPeetus who lost over 3M votes in the popular vote and violated election laws to coordinate/collude with a foreign adversary to cheat in the election! Just ask Roger Stone!

    Not content in defunding testing sites, Trump MAL-administration has just filed its brief in the SC case to invalidate ACA - in the middle of a pandemic!

    How inhumane is that!

    Per SCOTUSblog:

    The United States just filed its brief in the major constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act that will be argued next term. The government says the entire ACA is invalid but leaves room for the court to leave in place certain provisions that don’t harm the plaintiffs.

    https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog/status/1276356102024843264

    Addendum:

    Per Joe Biden:

    Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said during a campaign trip in Pennsylvania yesterday that it would amount to a double whammy for covid-19 survivors. He suggested insurers would view covid-19 as a preexisting condition, and without the ACA’s protections, would be free to deny survivors coverage (it’s not clear that would be the case).

    “Those survivors, having struggled and won the fight of their lives, would have their peace of mind stolen away at the moment they need it most,” Biden said.

  2. For the economy: no, no it isn’t, unfortunately. Because the economic shock isn’t a marketing problem you can solve by bullshitting
    For the virus: oh it’s coming back alright. Because public health mitigation is also not solved by bullshitting. I’m sensing a pattern!

    Of course, “artificial problem” is narcissist’s shorthand for “not my responsibility”. I know deciphering Trump’s word salad is a fool’s errand, but I’m pretty sure that’s where his addled mind was trying to go on that one.

  3. So… It’s not real?

    Got it.

  4. Is this some kind of wingnut code for “The dastardly Asians did it?”

  5. Well this is timely. I just finished reading this from the Guardian. This is what some survivors of COVID -19 will have to deal with.

    And we can bet that no one in this maladministration has a clue about supporting the survivors in their recovery.

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