A timeline of Trump's statements about the coronavirus juxtaposed with new cases throughout the pandemic
President Donald Trump has made contradictory and false statements about the coronavirus pandemic since January.
The chart below provides a timeline of some of Trump's statements juxtaposed with rates of new daily COVID-19 cases in the US.
The US is seeing its biggest surge of coronavirus cases. On Friday, the country recorded 83,128 new cases, breaking the record for the most in a single day. The surge came just days before voters will decide whether to reelect President Donald Trump.
Since the US confirmed its first coronavirus case in January, Trump has repeatedly given misleading, unprovable, or incorrect statements about the pandemic.
The chart below highlights some of the claims and statements Trump has made over the past 10 months, juxtaposed with rates of new daily COVID-19 cases nationwide.
On January 22, when the US reported its first case of COVID-19, Trump said the situation was "totally under control." As the virus spread through the country in January and February amid a testing shortage, he said it would disappear "like a miracle."
Trump told the journalist Bob Woodward in early February that the coronavirus was "deadly stuff," but he said publicly a month later that the risk for most Americans was "very, very low."
In March, as daily cases ticked up, he repeatedly said the pandemic would soon be over.
He's still painting a rosy picture that contradicts the data. "We're rounding the turn," Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire on Sunday. "It's going to be over."
Trump's rhetoric and his administration's overall handling of the pandemic appear to be hurting his chance of being elected for a second term. A recent AP-NORC poll found that 66% of Americans disapproved of how Trump had handled the US's outbreak.
The US has recorded more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country. It ranks ninth in both total cases per capita and deaths per capita.
As of Tuesday, one week before Election Day, more than 226,000 Americans had died from COVID-19, and more than 8.7 million had gotten sick.
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