Press Releases
“100 Days Since…” Trump Said If the U.S. Hit 100,000 Deaths, It Will Have Been a “Very Good Job”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – One hundred days ago today, President Trump said that if 100,000 Americans die from COVID-19, it will have been “a very good job,” and predicted that by June 1, the nation would be “well on our way to recovery.” Now, the nation has surpassed 130,000 deaths from the coronavirus, is closing in on 3 million confirmed cases, and the Washington Post reports that the White House’s latest strategy is to hope that Americans “will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day.”
Here’s some of what’s happened between Trump’s first statement and now — is this what the President thinks a “very good job” looks like?
Devastating Stories of Lives Lost
- The Detroit News: ‘Unimaginable’ pain: Coronavirus robs Michigan woman of whole family
- CNN: 5-year-old daughter of Detroit first responders dies after being diagnosed with coronavirus
- New York Times: What a Family That Lost 5 to the Virus Wants You to Know
Disproportionate Harm to Communities of Color
- ABC News: COVID-19 is ravaging America’s vulnerable Latino communities
- Washington Post: Almost one-third of black Americans know someone who died of covid-19, survey shows
- PEW Research Center: Many Black and Asian Americans Say They Have Experienced Discrimination Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak
PPE Procurement Chaos Hindering People’s Safety
- New York Times (March 19): ‘At War With No Ammo’: Doctors Say Shortage of Protective Gear Is Dire
- MarketWatch (April 13): Nurses are wearing garbage bags as they battle coronavirus: ‘It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone’
- Washington Post (May 20): Mask shortage for most health-care workers extended into May, Post-Ipsos poll shows
- Vox (June 17): Remember the N95 mask shortage? It’s still a problem.
For more of Trump’s disconnected rhetoric in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, see Accountable.US’s video, “An Incalculable Loss,” here.
100 DAYS AGO TUESDAY: March 29, 2020
- Trump said that if the country’s COVID-19 death toll reached 100,000, it will have been “a very good job.”
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