4 years ago this week: Trump claims that COVID-19 would just ‘go away’

Four years ago this week, Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. had "met the moment and … prevailed," not over COVID-19, but over the test shortage that had hobbled the nation's response for over four months as the virus spread around the world and across the country. As with most things Trump said about the pandemic, that was a lie. 

The reason for that lie is almost as foolish as Trump’s statement—the U.S. had simply failed to stockpile enough nose swabs to go with the tests that were being made. Without those swabs, the tests were left sitting unused on shelves. And there were no swabs because Trump left the supply planning up to his son-in-law Jared Kushner who had no concept how to handle a medical crisis.

In May 2020, the U.S. passed a horrific physical and spiritual milestone as COVID-19 deaths reached 100,000. Job losses were off the charts. Trump was working with Saudi Arabia and Russia to keep oil prices high. And the United States was a nation in mass trauma with freezer trucks full of bodies in New York City and consumers hoarding toilet paper.

And now Trump is actually running on claims that America was better off four years ago.