President Donald Trump is trying to say that he handled the Covid-19 pandemic well during his first presidency. The claim has his critics convinced that he’s living in a different version of reality than the rest of us are.
People see it as another way in which he’s trying to take credit for something he has no business being positively recognized for. While talking about the economy in front of reporters, Trump said, “We did a great job in Covid, we never got credit for it.” And his critics were very quick to point out several reasons why he “never got credit for it.”
People haven’t forgotten how he actually responded.
You told people to inject themselves with bleach https://t.co/8QGnLSkPza
— Jared Shult (@jared_shult) July 15, 2026
As Covid sickened and killed many Americans in 2020, Trump downplayed the severity, initially claiming that he had it “totally under control” and that it would “miraculously disappear.”
He also tried to say that it was only harmful to a small group of people with preexisting conditions. He repeatedly made claims that conflicted with what experts were saying.
People also remember how he floated the idea of injecting disinfectant to potentially treat the virus, a suggestion that experts warned was incredibly dangerous.
So, when a clip of Trump saying he “did a great job” at the height of the pandemic started circulating on X, people had a lot to say about that. “You told people to inject themselves with bleach,” one person pointed out.
Many others pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people died from Covid in 2020.
Maybe because 1M Americans weren’t available for comment?? https://t.co/bmpPeJyh0l
— Marlene Robertson🇨🇦 (@marlene4719) July 15, 2026
And while Covid had a devastating impact around the world, a lot of people have argued that the way Trump handled it made things worse for Americans. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans died from his political bull—- posturing & his refusal to listen to people smarter than him,” someone wrote on X.
“You actively sabotaged our COVID response,” another person wrote to Trump directly.
Critics questioned whether Trump thinks everyone has forgotten what 2020 was actually like. They accused him of trying to “rewrite history.”
“I’m convinced Donald Trump lives in another reality,” one person concluded. “WTF???? Trump thinks we all lost our memory???” another commenter questioned. “He repeatedly told people NOT to get tested (and) he pushed for this so the figures would not look so bad under his watch.”
“You nearly got us all, including yourself, killed,” someone else argued. Many people said that Trump should be held accountable for what happened at the time, not be celebrated for it. But they are willing to give him credit for “incompetence and outright lying to the public on many levels.”
Trump made these comments while bragging about the economy.
Trump: The One Big Beautiful Bill tax cuts helped my friend buy a private jet pic.twitter.com/pin5mGTFTp
— FactPost (@factpostnews) July 15, 2026
Which is another controversial topic, of course. Trump has repeatedly dismissed Americans’ concerns about the state of the U.S. economy and has tried to say that things are pretty amazing, actually. He did the same thing during this recent spiel, confidently boasting that his friends were able to buy things that they definitely “didn’t need.” Meanwhile, ordinary Americans could not relate to Trump’s wealthy friends in the slightest.
“We had the greatest economy in the history of our country in my first term,” he said. “We then got hit with Covid, but even including Covid, we did a great job in Covid, we never got credit for it. But every country was ripped apart by that disaster.”
Trump continued, “It was a terrible thing, but we had the greatest economy in history. And before Covid, nobody had ever seen anything like it. If you just took those three years [before Covid] and look at what we’re doing now, we’re going to blow them away. I mean, unless some horrible event happens.”
He then bragged about how his policies helped his friends out. “I have friends that bought things that quite frankly they didn’t need,” he said. “I have a friend that never flew in a private plane in his life and he ended up going out and buying a very expensive private plane.”
These comments sparked a ton of backlash as well, with one critic writing, “This idiot only cares about his rich friends.”
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