New economic numbers released today show that Trump’s failed coronavirus response has decimated the U.S. economy. Yet, even as tens of millions are unemployed and over 150,000 lives have been lost, Trump continues to make this crisis worse by pushing for businesses and schools to unsafely reopen despite a surge of cases across the country.

Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus has decimated the economy, leading to the worst economic downturn on record and more than a million Americans filing for unemployment for the 19th straight week. 

Washington Post: “U.S. economy contracted at fastest quarterly rate on record from April to June as coronavirus walloped workers, businesses”

Bloomberg News’ Sarah Ponczek: “19th straight week in which more than 1 million people filed for unemployment insurance”

Coronavirus cases and deaths continue to spike across the country as Trump urges states to fully reopen before it’s safe to do so. 

CNN: “The sharp increase in coronavirus infections that slammed the US Northeast in March and April followed by the South and West in June and July is now making its way inland.”

Wall Street Journal: “Daily U.S. Coronavirus Cases Climb Back Above 70,000”

Washington Post: “More than 1,400 coronavirus-related deaths were reported nationwide on Wednesday — roughly one fatality for every minute of the day. It was the worst day for covid-19 deaths in more than two months, as Florida, California, North Carolina and Idaho recorded single-day highs.”

Trump is putting lives in danger by continuing to promote unproven treatments to coronavirus, forcing medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci to repeatedly correct him to get credible information to the public. 

NBC News: “Describing the video Trump promoted as ‘a bunch of people spouting something that isn’t true,’ Fauci said, ‘The only recourse you have is to be very, very clear in presenting the scientific data that essentially contradicts that.’”

As Trump pushes for schools to fully reopen without proper safety measures, he often cites examples from European countries, but the reality is most countries have only done more limited reopenings.  

Politico: “Only a few countries have opened schools nationwide in the manner the Trump administration is pushing. They include Norway, France and New Zealand, as well as Nicaragua, Taiwan and Vietnam. On the other hand, 143 countries have instituted country-wide closures.”

Politico: “Countries with open schools tend to fall into two categories. Some took swift action against the pandemic in January to minimize disruption. Others were less proactive in the fight against Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but they prioritized education in their recovery plan, coordinated by the top levels of government. The United States did neither.”

In another admission that Trump didn’t take COVID-19 seriously, former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney this week acknowledged that the administration was slow to see the threat of the virus. 

Washington Examiner: “‘We didn’t know it was a crisis at the outset,’ he said, revealing the inside fight to contain it. In fact, he added, he didn’t even recall the first time he discussed the virus with the president. ‘I honestly don’t remember the first time that I talked with the president specifically about COVID. It would have been sometime in January, and it would have been a list of five or six things that we covered on a particular day,’ he said in a Zoom conference hosted by Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service at the McCourt School of Public Policy.”