President Donald Trump defended his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a recent press spray, calling the White House response to the virus “spectacular.”
Asked if it is fair for the voters to take the handling of the coronavirus into consideration when they go to the polls in November, Trump said, “Sure, I think they do, I think they have to do a number of things … I think I’ve handled it — and not me, I think our whole group — has been spectacular.”
He continued, “We had ventilators, we didn’t have any, we built them. We have thousands, tens of thousands are right now under construction.”
Trump added, “On testing, we’re doing numbers, the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before.” He noted that the president of South Korea called to congratulate him “on testing.”
As of a chart updated on April 20, the United States had tested more people per capita than South Korea. Italy — where the virus had devastating results — had, as of that point, tested more people per capita than the United States.
Trump added later, “We’ve built hospitals … we’ve built medical centers, and I’m talking about thousands and thousands of beds. Many, many medical centers.”
Here’s a clip of those remarks:
Trump claims his government's handling of the coronavirus has been "spectacular" pic.twitter.com/bHfzCIC5UL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2020
While some of his remarks on the coronavirus have evolved, Trump has been steadfast in his statements about his handling of the virus.
Some countries, like New Zealand, have essentially eradicated the coronavirus but in the United States, the official death toll has just climbed above 60,000 and there have been reports about the actual number being higher.
The president has also maintained that the United States is lapping the rest of the world on coronavirus testing, tweeting, ““The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of coronavirus is that our testing is sooo much better than any other country in the world.”