WATCH: Compilation of Trump’s COVID-19 misinformation circulates

The Washington Press compiled a two minute video of President Donald Trump offering misinformation surrounding the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.  

Accompanied by a caption that reads, “Here’s a 2-minute compilation of Trump LYING about the coronavirus crisis to help his re-election” and “remember this in November,” the video appears to show Trump presenting unsubstantiated opinion as scientific fact.

As shown in the compilation, on Jan. 22, Trump said that he’s “not at all [worried about a pandemic]” and that “we have it totally under control.”

However, Trump revised his stance in March, stating that he “felt like it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

The video also shows Trump claiming on Feb. 26 that “within a couple of days, [the coronavirus] will be down to close to zero” and that “there’s a chance [the virus] won’t spread.” 

On March 4, Trump said that hundreds of thousands of Americans are working while recovering from the coronavirus, despite the U.S. only confirming 149 cases at the time the statement was made. “We have thousands–or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, you know, just by sitting around and going to work,” said Trump. “Some of them go to work, but they get better.”

The two-minute video also shows members of the Trump administration encouraging the public to congregate at large gatherings. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t go [to a Trump rally],” stated U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson. 

Trump recently came under fire for what opponents describe as his mishandling of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Despite Trump claiming that the virus would disappear, as of April 9, the United States confirmed 454,619 cases of the coronavirus. Of those cases, 16,074 Americans succumbed to the disease while 24,562 recovered. 

Amid social distancing measures and mandated closures of nonessential businesses, over 16 million Americans filed for unemployment over the past three weeks, according to MSNBC. 

On March 24, Trump shared his hopes to have the nation “opened up and raring to go by Easter,” a plan Dr. Anthony Fauci, a lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, rebuked as an “aspirational projection.”

Trump later extended his  social distancing guidelines through April 30, though the administration balked at the idea of issuing a nationwide stay at home order, calling it “pretty unlikely.” Trump’s unwillingness to declare a nationwide stay at home order leaves social distancing protocols to the discretion of state and organizational leadership.

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