October 27, 2020

As the Coronavirus Surges Again, Trump Claims We’re Basically Done With the Pandemic

I don’t know how many times we have to tell you this, but the pandemic is, in fact, not over.

Lev Radin/ZUMA

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The United States is in the middle of its third coronavirus wave—a nascent surge that has already broken daily infection records—but President Trump is loudly insisting that the pandemic is on the brink of extinction. That patently false claim comes as Trump complains that the media is playing up the virus in order to sink his reelection campaign. “You won’t be hearing so much about it,” after the election, he asserted on Tuesday, once again falsely claiming that the media and his political opponents are only interested in using the pandemic to destroy him. 

Here are three samples from the last two mornings:

It’s a stunning closing message as the presidential race enters its final week. But it tracks with every instance of Trump’s deadly coronavirus denial, his efforts to downplay the virus, and his false, politically motivated promises that have punctuated his administration’s catastrophic response over nine months. Meanwhile, more than 225,000 people have died from the virus in the United States, and the outlook for the third wave is looking increasingly grim.

This story has been updated.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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