March 10, 2021

Donald Trump One Year Ago Today: Coronavirus “Will Go Away”

“Just stay calm.” Watch.

Trump on March 10, 2020Ron Sachs/CNP/Zuma

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By March 10, 2020, the novel coronavirus was already spreading unchecked in the United States. Six hundred cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, and 26 people had died—numbers that would rise precipitously in the following days.

When asked about the potential economic impact of the virus, Trump responded, “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

As for testing, which the administration struggled to scale up in the early weeks of the outbreak, Trump said, “The testing has gone very well.  And when people need a test, they can get a test.”

At the beginning of what would turn out to be the most dreadful year in recent memory, Trump concluded, “A lot of good things are going to happen.”

Watch the video:

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We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

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