Some are still supporting him while others are just happy that he’s gone. However, we can all agree on one thing: Donald Trump will be remembered forever.
Aside from his unique personality and outstanding remarks, our former president also had one of the most difficult tasks imaginable for a White House leader: combating a pandemic.
Now, considering that we hadn’t battled a pandemic in more than 100 years, clearly anyone in Trump’s position could make questionable decisions.
But what if we lied to our citizens on a daily basis…?
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken more lies than we can accept. It has also destroyed millions of people’s careers, financial situations, education, and relationships.
Today, it’s time to let the facts talk and find out where is the chaos coming from. One of the sources most likely lies in these 10 devastating lies Donald Trump said about COVID-19 while he was president…
Anybody can get tested
Ever since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in our country, Donald Trump reassured the population publicly that everything’s under control.
In fact, he even went so far as to say that SARS-CoV-2 tests are available for everybody at any time on March 6th 2020. During his speech, he stated that anybody that needs a test gets a test.
Two days later after this statement, experts from the CDC used about 1,700 tests. During the first couple of months of the pandemic, America was struggling with test shortages.
The problem: Testing people for COVID-19 was the only way researchers could track the virus and prevent its spread to larger groups; that’s a theory that’s been known since the Wuhan outbreak in China. Not only did Trump refuse to address the test shortage issue, but he also lied to the entire country, claiming that we were on top of the problem.
It’s just another hoax
On February 28th 2020, Trump attended a rally in South Carolina. When it came down to discussing COVID-19, he stated that the new coronavirus was the Democrats’ new hoax.
Trying to ridicule the adversary is nothing new for Donald Trump; however, he truly didn’t acknowledge the severity of the issue – one that has killed millions until now.
The problem: Shortly before Donald Trump was excitedly discussing his latest hoax theory, the CDC published a message urging everybody to take aggressive measures to prevent the virus transmission.
Had Trump treated the problem more seriously right from the start, more people and institutions would’ve adopted the recommended safety measures thus reducing the spread of COVID-19.
It’s going to disappear
When the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 appeared in our country, Donald Trump simply refused to acknowledge its existence. When things got worse, he started admitting there was a virus, but it was under control although public health officials had another (proven) opinion.
On February 26th 2020 Trump declared that when you have 15 positive people, the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. Weird or not?
He ended his statement by patting himself on the back for doing a pretty good job delusionally thinking he can just make COVID-19 disappear miraculously.
The problem: We all knew very little about the SARS-CoV-2 virus or how a pandemic works. Instead of letting experts teach the population how to stay safe, Trump played the expert role himself which led to mass disinformation.
We don’t need pandemic experts
In 2018, Trump tore down the pandemic response team from the National Security Council.
Shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked Trump about the decision. His response? He said that he didn’t know anything about it.
But he knew – and Senator Sherrod Brown confirmed it by tweeting the open letter he sent Trump demanding answers as to why he fired the White House pandemic team.
The problem: COVID-19 proved what experts had known for a long time: an outbreak can happen anytime and, without specialists’ help, it can have a devastating impact. Not only did Trump let go of some of our country’s top pandemic experts, but he also refused to acknowledge his mistake when honesty was most needed.
COVID-19 is just like the flu
Admittedly, COVID-19 has been compared with the flu many times because both diseases are transmissible through the air and they affect the respiratory system. Other than that though, there are plenty of differences between the two – especially when it comes to fatality risks.
During the beginning of the outbreak, Donald Trump tweeted a concerning message, saying that in 2019, roughly 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.
Looking back at this statement, we can understand much better just how damaging this lie was.
The problem: Well, the worst part is that Trump’s statement is simply false. Our country’s leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci had already declared that COVID-19 can be up to 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. Now that experts had plenty of time to establish the exact fatality rate, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is definitely more dangerous than the seasonal flu.
Chloroquine is the cure
After dismissing the existence of the virus and diminishing its devastating impact, Trump started recommending the drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
Not only did he claim that the drug was allegedly showing very encouraging results, but the former president even declared that the FDA has approved the use of chloroquine as a COVID-19 medicine immediately.
The problem: This is perhaps the most damaging lie Donald Trump has said regarding the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Firstly, the FDA never approved the use of chloroquine against COVID-19 and the agency has been persistently declaring this after Trump’s false statements. In fact, specialists confirm that using this drug wrongly can cause permanent damage to anyone’s health and might even become fatal.
Despite the FDA’s efforts to combat Trump’s theory, many doctors risked their careers by illegally issuing prescriptions for chloroquine. The result? One man from Arizona passed away and his wife ended up in critical condition when they consumed the drug due to Donald Trump’s recommendation.
We couldn’t see it coming
On March 25th, 2020, Donald Trump declared that the COVID-19 pandemic was completely unexpected adding that no one could’ve prepared us for anything like that.
This was just the first time he said so; in reality, he had many other similar statements over the following few months of 2020.
The problem: Well, first things first, many experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci actually did see this coming years ago – except no one listened. In fact, Donald Trump didn’t even think a pandemic team was necessary at the White House, which turned the COVID-19 pandemic into a disaster – a preventable one nonetheless.
According to Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, the biggest problem was that Trump was using these false claims to justify the mistakes of his administration.
The cure isn’t worse than the problem
This statement just sums up many of Trump’s early statements suggesting that we should give up on social distancing rules.
His main argument was that the economic impact caused by social distancing measures would be much worse than the actual health effects COVID-19 has on people. Trump went on by encouraging people to return to work, which also convinced many companies and even state officials to disobey public health experts’ advice.
The problem: Yes, our country has been (and still is) suffering greatly financially as a result of the pandemic. However, this could never be compared to the health challenges we’ve all been facing, from a health system constantly crashing to test shortage, case complications and – most importantly – losing our loved ones.
Economic damage is something every country had to go through in order to prevent the spread of the illness and protect its citizens.
We were ‘very close’ to vaccination
By the end of 2020, we were already lucky enough to have a vaccine developed and ready to be utilized. However, Donald Trump has been claiming his team was very close to developing a cure for COVID-19 as early as March; during a press conference, he even said that his team’s vaccine would be available in two months.
The problem: This was another type of misinformation – one that was immediately clarified by Dr. Anthony Fauci himself.
Shortly after Trump’s statement, Dr. Fauci declared that not even our greatest efforts would be enough to develop a vaccine so soon. In March 2020, he also added that the earliest our country would see a COVID-19 vaccine would be in a year. As you already know, the vaccines became available to anyone in 2021, many months later after the pandemic outbreak.
Bonus statement: saying that he’s not responsible”
While I must admit this isn’t exactly a lie, it’s definitely worth mentioning and I’ll explain why.
During a press conference on March 13th, 2020, Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic as a national emergency.
Multiple reporters insisted on asking him about the test kit shortage since many states severely lacked testing tools at the time. His response? He said that he won’t take any responsibility.
The problem: He should have taken responsibility and he is the reason why our country has been struggling with testing kit shortages (at least partially). Why?
Well, mainly because he could’ve listened to public health experts’ advice from the very beginning and impose more serious restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Trump has been patting himself on the back for closing borders with China very early on, which was indeed a smart move. Other than that, though, he didn’t take any additional safety measures (not to mention how he even denied the existence of the virus altogether).
I’m ending this bonus statement with a quote Donald Trump tweeted himself back in 2013:
‘Leadership: whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.’
Donald Trump has said and done some of the most memorable decisions during his four years of presidency. However, in our great political history, he’s just a small puzzle piece writing history.
No matter how much you think you know, there are always more fascinating things that can help us understand our nation better and make the right decisions regarding our future. So if you love reading books and getting informed, here‘s a good one for you!
And since knowledge is power, we’re dedicating our time to keeping you informed while debunking myths and stopping the spread of disinformation.
With that in mind, I’ll leave you some of our top-rated posts below:
- 7 US States With the Strictest Gun Laws This Year;
- These US Elections Were Even Stranger Than Trump’s.
