There are times when we must be viscerally reminded about the incompetence and dishonesty of Donald Trump and the impact they had on every American’s life.  Four years ago today, April 19, 2020, the denizen of the Oval Office held another of his hour-long daily press conferences during which he touted his declared greatness while telling people the coronavirus would end up being nothing.  Here, eight weeks after he said “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero [coronavirus case],” Trump took to the podium to downplay his blown prediction:

“But we would’ve had millions of deaths instead of, it looks like we’ll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of, so this is case where people say we would’ve had that number it’s similar to a flu, it’s not the same thing as a flu at all because if we wouldn’t’ve done anything you would’ve had, so a flu would’ve had 35 and that goes from 27 to 35, 40.  Fifty sometimes for a long period of time.  Much different.  It’s even a much different death, to be honest, it’s a much different death.  This is violent.”

On April 20, 2020, the US had recorded a total of 44,000 coronavirus fatalities.  The US would surpass 60,000 fatalities later that week, with more than 450,000 Americans dying through the remainder of Trump’s term, and total fatalities currently at 1.2 million, 20 times higher than Trump’s prediction.