Trump Offers Reassurance: "We're Ordering A Lot Of Different Elements Of Medical". A Few Hours Later, He Says The Virus Is A "Hoax".

Donald Trump called the coronavirus a "new hoax" on Friday night, the latest example of Democrats sabotaging his chances of re-election by pushing fake news.

This is their new hoax ... [their] single talking point ... Democrats will always say horrible things. Democrats want us to fail so badly. ... My administration has taken the most aggressive acts in history to prevent the spread in the United States.

That is a lie.

Trump fired the US pandemic response team in 2018 and never replaced them.

Trump has gutted the US's infectious disease defense infrastructure. In May 2018, after then-National Security Advisor John Bolton re-organized the National Security Council, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, the head of the global health security team, resigned, and his team was disbanded.

In addition to ignoring those vacancies, Trump also slashed funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, severely hampering efforts to assist countries (like China) prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics. (His current budget cuts the CDC's budget by 16%.)

Trump – who said his administration was "magnificently organized" and "totally prepared" to fight the virus [two more lies] – is now requesting $2.5 billion to battle the outbreak, which might not have been necessary if he hadn't taken those previous actions.

Trump, February 28:

There have been no deaths in the United States, at all. A lot of that's attributable to the fact that we closed the border very early. Otherwise, it could be a different story.

That is also a lie. The United States has not closed its borders because of the virus.

Trump said the press is in "hysteria mode", repeating there have been no deaths in the US. Other countries exist, however, and since the beginning of the year, more than 83,000 people have contracted the virus and at least 2,857 have died.

Trump:

We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.

Jebus (@the_real_Lord): "Can we order him some elements of brain."

Max Burbank (@max_burbank): "No one says a sentence like 'We're ordering a lot of different elements of medical' unless something is neurologically wrong with them."

Jumpsuits For Trumpsuits (@JumptyTrumpty): "Why would you order medical supplies for a 'hoax'?"