Coronavirus: Trump says people should say 'thank you very much' for virus response despite death toll hitting 40,000

'I believe there were no deaths when I closed up the country,' Mr Trump says

President Donald Trump has said Americans should say “thank you very much” for his coronavirus response on the same day the US death toll hit 40,000.

The president was asked about why he delayed responding to the spreading novel virus throughout the month of February during his daily press briefing, and he once again got defensive.

“I believe there were no deaths when I closed up the country,” Mr Trump said. ”And you should say thank you very much.”

The one aspect of the Trump administration’s response the president has consistently boasted about was his enactment of the China travel ban at the end of January.

But the travel ban was only against specific foreign nationals and still allowed Americans to travel back to the US. After the ban was enacted, more than 40,000 Americans came back into the country and potentially spread the virus, the New York Times reported.

Although the president was correct that there were zero deaths at time of his travel ban, health experts have warned the virus was likely already saturated within the US. Experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, have said shutting down the country quicker could’ve prevented more infections and deaths.

"I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives," Dr Fauci told CNN. He later walked back these comments after facing backlash for speaking against the Trump administration.

On Sunday, the US death toll surpassed 40,000 people with a total of 40,461, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Mr Trump was asked if now was really the time to brag about his efforts given how severely the novel virus has impacted American lives.

“I am standing up for the men and women who have done such a great job, not me,” he claimed. "If we didn't do what we did ... the 40,000 people could be a million."

A CNN reporter pressed about why the president was playing videos of people praising him after thousands have already died from the novel virus.

"You're CNN. You're fake news ... you don't have the brains you were born with," Mr Trump said while avoiding the question.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, along with the Trump administration, enacted its social distancing measures on 16 March that would later extend until 30 April. A majority of state governors also enacted stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The president was correct that these measures helped stop initial projections from being reached. But it has remained unclear where the virus would be at in the country had the US implemented stronger measures in February.

"One things that’s attributed to is what’s taken place with the American people. They’ve done a job nobody thought was possible. They did models not based on this kind of success," Mr Trump said.

Another consistent line from the president during the pandemic was what he's claimed his administration "inherited" from the Obama administration.

"We inherited a lot of garbage ... horrible ventilators," he said. The president also claimed CDC testing was not up to par because of the Obama administration.

But Covid-19 did not exist when President Barack Obama was in office. During the Ebola crisis, Mr Obama created the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefence. This organisation was formed for the sole purpose to respond to epidemics and pandemics. When Mr Trump started his presidency, he disbanded the office.

The CDC also struggled with Covid-19 testing after it opted to forgo using tests given out by the World Health Organisation for its own developed test. The first round of tests proved to be faulty across the nation, though, and the organisation was slow to get mass numbers of tests needed in the states. The Trump administration has not answered as to why this all occurred at the beginning of the pandemic.

Mr Trump formed a congressional task force focused on reopening the US, but Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was notably left off the list.

"I’m not a fan of Mitt Romney. I don’t really want his advice,” the president said. The politicians have clashed throughout Mr Trump's presidency as the senator has been one of the sole Republicans to criticise the president consistently.