President Trump is a liar’s liar. Other less experienced liars look up to Trump. He’s #liargoals.
He’s also a goddamn bumbling idiot who will say anything even when scientific data and experts say different.
Trump is the racist uncle who makes up stories to shame kids for complaining about how difficult their life is. The rest of America, the sensible part of America, are the parents in the car on the ride home who say things like “Uncle Racism never killed a wolf with his bare hands. He also didn’t contract VD during Vietnam because he lied about having bone spurs.”
So here we are again with Uncle Embellishment spreading more of his tall tales based on hunches and unscientific bullshit. According to the World Health Organization (WHO)—you know the organization that follows world health—“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing Tuesday.
But Uncle White Supremacy doesn’t believe the reported number of fatalities. During a Fox News interview Wednesday with his favorite anal plug, Sean Hannity, Trump straight up called the number of COVID-19 deaths being reported by WHO a lie. His evidence: a hunch.
“Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch, and, but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this — because a lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild. They will get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor. They don’t even call a doctor. You never hear about those people. So, you can’t put them down in the category of the overall population in terms of this corona flu and, or virus.”
Because the president wasn’t done trying to kill us all, he continued: “So, if we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work—some of them go to work, but they get better,” MSNBC reports.
Trump continued his misinformation campaign adding that he considers the data from the World Health Organization to be “very high.” And then because the president is well studied in possible pandemics and health organizational matters, he gave his guess as to what he believes the fatality rate actually is.
“I think the number—personally, I would say the number is way under 1%,” Trump said, adding, “It’s not that severe.”
From MSNBC:
So to recap, in the midst of an intensifying public-health emergency, the sitting president of the United States told a national television audience not to believe the research from the World Health Organization’s experts; the virus can be characterized as the “corona flu”; and some people go to work after contracting the virus, which Trump characterized as no big deal because “they get better.”
In case this isn’t already painfully obvious, no good can come of such reckless rhetoric from the chief executive of a global superpower. Sensible and responsible people should not believe what Trump said. By most measures, it would be dangerous to take his rhetoric seriously.
But just as unsettling is the familiarity of these circumstances: as the outbreak has unfolded, Trump has consistently contradicted experts and authorities. As of last night, he feels justified in doing so based on his “hunches.”
Trump also noted that walking in a circle 40 times backwards can cure syphilis, bloodletting can relieve a fever and drinking 15 cups of tummy tea will absolutely make you thin.