President Donald Trump on Thursday offered his first expression
of sympathy in observance of the milestone of 100,000 American
coronavirus deaths, tweeting his condolences after drawing
criticism for failing to reflect on the human cost of the outbreak
in recent days.
“We have just reached a very sad milestone with the
coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000,” Trump wrote
online. “To all of the families & friends of those who have
passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for
everything that these great people stood for & represent. God
be with you!”
The president’s social media post came after the number of
reported fatalities in the United States from Covid-19, the disease
caused by the novel coronavirus,
climbed past six figures on Wednesday, prompting public shows
of mourning from various elected officials.
In a video message posted
Wednesday afternoon, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the
death toll, remarking that “there are moments in our history so
grim, so heart-rending, that they’re forever fixed in each of our
hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments.”
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, went on
to describe the 100,000 deaths as a “fateful milestone we should
have never reached — that could have been avoided.”
Trump also invoked the grim turning point in a tweet earlier
this week, but only to promote his administration’s handling of
the public health crisis and defend his efforts to halt the spread
of the highly infectious disease.
“For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done
my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million
People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the
number,” Trump
wrote Tuesday. “That’s 15 to 20 times more than we will
lose. I shut down entry from China very early!”
In a subsequent message, the president
acknowledged that “One person lost to this invisible virus is
too much,” but insisted he “made the right decisions” and
ridiculed “Crazy Nancy” Pelosi, the House speaker.
Trump was roundly rebuked over the weekend, as the U.S. deaths
continued to mount, for golfing at his Virginia club and leveling
incendiary attacks at several of his perceived enemies via Twitter
— even
repeating his claim that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a
congressional staffer in 2001. The president has offered no
evidence to support the allegation, which has been widely debunked
as a conspiracy theory that is not supported by facts.
As of Thursday morning, more than 1.7 million people have become
infected with Covid-19 in the U.S., the global epicenter of the
coronavirus pandemic, and 100,467 Americans have died from the
disease, according
to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
