Trump tweets 'China virus cases up', brags about low deaths and new jobs in US as Internet calls him a 'loser'
Another day, another Donald Trump tweet evading blame. With nearly 2.9M confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the United States — the country's death toll from the virus stands at 129,906 at the time of writing according to data by the Johns Hopkins University — US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter yet again to deflect rising criticism about his administration's handling of the pandemic in the country while also trying to brag about "deaths down" and record-setting "new job numbers".
In one of his latest tweets, Trump tweeted, "New China Virus Cases up (because of massive testing), deaths are down, 'low and steady'. The Fake News Media should report this and also, that new job numbers are setting records!" — once again referring to the coronavirus by the racist term his supporter base appreciates.
While the number of confirmed Covid-19 infections are rising sharply after states lifted lockdown measures preemptively, the death rate from the infections is falling, though not the actual number of deaths themselves, clearly. In April and May, 3,000 people died per day from Covid-19 virus in the country, roughly seven to eight percent of Americans known to have been infected. The number of daily deaths is now closer to 600 according to The New York Times and the death rate is less than five percent.
Meanwhile, the US unemployment rate fell to 11.1% as the economy added a record 4.8M jobs in June, according to statistics from the Bureau of Labor. It was the second-consecutive month of growth after more than 20M jobs were wiped out in April during the coronavirus lockdown and can be attributed to states reopening their economies amid the pandemic. The American economy is still down nearly 14.7M jobs since February. Although the unemployment rate has come down from 14.7% in April, it remains higher than at any point during the Great Recession. Moreover, Americans are still continuing to file for first-time unemployment benefits.
Many responded to Trump's tweet calling him out for his repeated racist rhetoric as well as his statements blaming the rising number of cases on "massive testing". One user tweeted, "Americans are dying in a plague, and instead of doing anything about it, you're too busy hurling racial slurs and bragging about misleading (jobs) numbers. You're guilty of negligent homicide. You're going to hate solitary confinement, you pathetic all-time loser!" Another wrote, "Those job numbers aren’t new, they’re just people going back to work after 4 months of being unemployed bc of a virus u didn’t take seriously CLOWN."
A user opined, "Sorry it stopped being the China Virus in the End of March it then became the trump virus. Biggest killer of Americans since World War 2. The trump virus is what happens when you do nothing during a pandemic and scoff at testing. 131,000 dead in the USA. TRUMP LIES AND WE DIE!" Another wrote, "If we originally called Covid-19 the China Virus because it originated in China, seems fair that we rename it #TrumpVirus because it's now spreading like wildfire through the US because of Trump."
One user shared, "What kind of a sick f**k says 'low and steady' about American Coronavirus deaths?? And he's still going with his goddamn racial 'China Virus' sh*t? Come on!!!! @GOP this disgusting crap is splattering all over you and it's not gonna come off in the wash." Another pointed out, "TESTING CREATES CASES. Testing isn't what fills up the beds in the ICU. Testing isn't what keeps the morgue so damn busy. Serio AF. The problem is real. Please resign."