Donald Trump Says 4 of His Friends Have Died From Coronavirus

As he leads the nation through the current coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump says that four of his friends have died from the illness. Trump reportedly shared the news while speaking at the White House. He added that he has spoken with the families of his late friends.

Trump does not appear to have given the names of his friends, but he reportedly stated that he’d spoken with other families who lost loved ones to coronavirus. As reported by Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason, Trump also stated that “the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. will go down to zero eventually.” Mason also reports that Trump told the White House event attendees that “the US will be at 5 million coronavirus tests per day soon.” Finally, Trump told “a West Virginia eye doctor who benefited from the CARES Act that he may need to get an eye examination later.”

Recently one of Trump’s other friends, British journalist Piers Morgan, took the president to task over the way he feels Trump has handled the coronavirus pandemic. “He’s turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan, almost like a rally to him — almost like what’s more important is winning the election in November,” Morgan said, as reported by CNN.

The Good Morning Britain co-host later addressed Trump directly: “You will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win. And, conversely, you will lose the election in November if you continue to make it about yourself, you continue playing silly politics, continue targeting Democrat governors because that suits you for your electoral purposes.”

Morgan also commented on what he perceives as similarities in how the United States and the United Kingdom have responded to the pandemic. “You have two populist leaders in Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. And all the tricks that they used to become popular and to win elections and to lead their countries are now being tested in a very different way,” he stated. “It’s not about partisan politics anymore. It’s about plain war crisis leadership.” Morgan added, “What I’ve noticed with both Boris Johnson and with Donald Trump is an apparent inability to segue into being war leaders. They’re still playing the old games of party politics.”