Politico | Trump’s new coronavirus argument: 2 million people are being saved
- Even as Trump adopts a sombre, get-ready-for-the-worst tone, he has still sought to portray himself as a hero for his actions thus far
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Meridith McGraw on politico.com on April 1, 2020.
Don’t focus on the 200,000 people the coronavirus might kill in the United States, think about the 2 million people US President Donald Trump is saving.
Even as Trump adopts a sombre, get-ready-for-the-worst tone, he has still sought to portray himself as a hero for his actions thus far, batting away questions about whether he has adequately responded to the coronavirus outbreak.
“What would have happened if we did nothing?” the president asked Tuesday night.
Like many of Trump’s rhetorical questions, he had already answered it himself – millions would die. Starting on Sunday, Trump began touting a scary figure that his staff had shared with him as it created models to judge the outcome of the coronavirus pandemic – 2.2 million deaths. That was the government’s latest upper-end estimate of how many Americans might die if nothing was done to prevent the spread of the disease – no social distancing, no business closures, no banning of mass gatherings.
Over the next three days, Trump mentioned the number over 20 times in his daily briefings, often to illustrate the success of his efforts thus far to curb the coronavirus.