An interview with Donald Trump about the Covid-19 death toll in the US has gone viral this morning with comparisons being made to political sitcom The Thick of It for how unbelievable it is to watch.
Interviewed by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump is seen talking through charts about the death toll in the US, claiming that ‘the US is lowest in numerous categories, lower than the world, lower than Europe.’
Trump was attempting to debate that America has a lower number of deaths as a percentage of coronavirus cases.
‘Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases,’ Swan replies upon seeing the charts. ‘I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.’
To which Trump suddenly replies ‘You can’t do that.’ The three minute clip goes on to show a would-be-hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-so-terrifying back and forth where Swan attempts to hold Trump accountable for the rising death toll in the US while he negates every point.
According to latest reports, Covid-19 deaths in the US have increased week-on-week for a month now, to more than 8,500 people over the last week. The death toll in the US rose by 36% last week, although deaths can continue to rise even after new infections drop.
However, while new cases are down by 5% across the US (compared to last week), in 20 states new cases are rising week on week - including Montana and Missouri and Oklahoma (where cases have been on the rise for the past nine weeks).
With near 10,000 replies to the video that aired on HBO last night, many noted that they thought it was a comedy sketch from a TV show before realising, oh no, that’s the president of the world’s most powerful country.
‘This looks like a SNL skit but it’s not,’ one Twitter user replied to thousands of likes. ‘Right? I thought it was some British parody show for a minute,’ another responded.
Unfortunately for the world, this isn’t a case of life mirroring art – but check out the full interview for yourself if you want to be truly concerned.
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