Well, that didn't age well.
It's now been one year since former President Donald Trump infamously tweeted that the "coronavirus is very much under control" in the United States.
At that point, a search through the Trump Twitter Archive reveals, Trump had been discussing the virus publicly, but mostly in the context of how China was dealing with it; in those days, Trump was still speaking glowingly of President Xi Jinping's response. The Feb. 24 tweet was one of the earliest references Trump made to the virus' presence in the United States, and certainly his most direct about its potential effect on the country.
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The comment looks quite jarring in hindsight — earlier this week the U.S. recorded its 500,000th COVID-19 death, and the pandemic remains a serious public health threat, although there are now signs of hope in the form of steadily declining cases and increasing vaccinations.
Trump was far from the only person to downplay the risk of the virus in the U.S. in February 2020, but he did continue to send mixed messages about its danger throughout the rest of his presidency, even after he was infected himself.
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