Redefining Success

Trump now claims 100,000 US deaths from COVID-19 would be "a very good job."

Many people are saying that Donald Trump has been paying close attention not only to his own TV ratings but also to the praise being lavished on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his data-based, honesty-first press conferences.

So  Trump tried to deliver some brutal truths at today’s Rose Garden press conference. (No roses were handed out although, as US deaths from COVID-19 ticked above 2,400, Trump did, again, brag about his ratings during this pandemic being on a par with a finale for popular reality TV show ‘The Bachelor.’)

The main headline coming out of today’s show is that federal social distancing guidelines are being extended through April 30.

But, one day after #TrumpGenocide trended all day on Twitter, the other big development is Trump’s sudden embrace of a massive death toll from COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci had floated the numbers earlier today on CNN: Millions of potential cases. A U.S. death toll reaching between 100,000 and 200,000.

This  afternoon, Trump (doing his best Andrew Cuomo impresssion) revealed that a six-figure U.S. death toll from the coronavirus was, indeed, likely before all this is over.

Of course, that’s a big switcheroo from what he and Fox News have been telling people for the past couple of months. (Which is why Fox News is now worried about getting sued for lying to its viewers.)

But Trump can’t even tell the truth without lying

To  make the new, horrific number more palatable, Trump first floated an even bigger and more horrific one — 2.2 million U.S. dead — and lied that today was the first time he had ever heard the number.

(Spoiler: It wasn’t. He knew about that projection on or before March 16.)

That’s right. Trump told America what he (and anyone paying attention) knew two weeks ago: A projection by Imperial College of London showed that, without social distancing measures being put in place, up to 2.2 million Americans would die.

For  marketing purposes, Trump will now position himself as the awesome leader who saved two million people from certain death. Of course, he’s doing this while still refusing to acknowledge the crucial original sin that led to the “Trump Pandemic”: the 6 weeks in which he allowed the coronavirus to spread untested and unchecked throughout America’s 50 states.

So just to recap:

Then:

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

Now:

March 29:  “And so if we can hold that down, as we’re saying to 100,000, it’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.”

It may  be quite a shock for the Fox News viewers who thought this corona flu thing was just another hoax the Fake News was perpetrating against Dear Leader. But it’s no surprise to anyone else: Trump has gone from “totally under control” to congratulating himself on 100,000 potential  dead in just 67 days.

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