The “down close to zero” claim came on February 26, when there were 15 reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. Some of Trump's other greatest hits include saying, on February 2, “we pretty much shut it down coming in from China,” and, on February 19, “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along,” and, on March 10, “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

Now he’s all “Hey, at least it probably won’t be 2.2 million.” That number was a projection, made two weeks ago, of the possible result if the U.S. did nothing to slow the spread of the virus, and Trump really wants us to remember it. He wants us to remember it so much he said the number 16 times in Sunday’s press briefing, so that when the number isn’t that bad—after governors of several states got way out in front of the federal government and Trump was pressured away from his original desire to see restrictions lifted by Easter—he can claim credit.

Credit. For “only” 100,000 or so deaths.

That’s nearly twice as many Americans who died in the Vietnam war. Well over 10 times as many compared to those that died in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it’s Trump’s current benchmark for success.

After his administration's testing failures on top of his lies and denialism (see above) helped get us here. Nope. Nope nope nope HELL NOPE.