President Donald Trump speaks in a video released on Twitter on December 31, 2020.
The White House | Twitter
WASHINGTON – In the closing days of 2020, the United States saw coronavirus deaths soar, cases soared to dizzying levels, hospitals came under pressure and the roll-out of much-needed vaccines fell short of expectations.
December was America’s deadliest month during the pandemic. Yet President Donald Trump barely spoke a word about Covid-19’s tragic toll.
Instead, the president spent a month obsessed with baseless allegations about stolen elections, delayed emergency legislation before signing it, weighed in on cable news broadcasts, and lashed out at members of his own party.
And on Thursday, the last day of the month and year, Trump tweeted a video boasting about his administration’s response to the pandemic.
In December, the country plunged into what was to be its toughest fight against Covid-19, even as the vaccines started to go out. The nation reported more than 6.1 million new infections and more than 74,140 deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
According to the latest totals, December is the deadliest month of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, ahead of April when more than 60,738 Americans were killed by the coronavirus.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, at least 342,414 Americans have died of the disease, which Trump has repeatedly pledged to disappear on 40 different occasions.
In a recorded message released Thursday, Trump took the lion’s share of the credit for the unprecedented speed in vaccine development, calling it a “medical miracle.”
“Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, we have developed a vaccine in just nine months, have already started a nationwide vaccination program and are shipping the vaccine around the world. The world will benefit, and everyone is crying out to thank me,” said the president.
Trump also took a moment to praise his work on the economy, saying his administration has “built the largest economy in the history of the world.”
“We’re now doing numbers like no one has ever seen before, including having the highest stock market in the history of the world,” Trump said, adding “the best is yet to come” in his signing.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tweets and golf
Trump, who was on vacation at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida last week, returned to the White House on Thursday as lawmakers debated legislation that would increase Covid’s aid payments to $ 2,000 amid historic unemployment and corporate closures.
The president himself has pushed for these higher payments, although Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has opposed holding a stand-alone vote on the bill providing for the higher payments, which was passed with bipartisan support in Parliament.
While in Palm Beach, Trump spent several days playing golf on his for-profit golf course, sending 110 tweets largely focused on false claims of faked presidential elections and the upcoming Senate ballots in Georgia.
Trump, despite a slew of failed legal challenges, has not conceded the election to Democrat Joe Biden, due to be inaugurated on Jan. 20. The president also took to Twitter to rally support for an upcoming meeting in Georgia.
President Donald Trump is playing golf at Trump National Golf Club on November 21, 2020 in Sterling, Virginia.
Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images
The president’s refusal to address other aspects of the unfolding public health disaster comes after Colorado and California governors confirm a new and potentially more contagious strain of Covid-19 in their states.
Hospital struggle and vaccination stumble
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier Wednesday that the new strain could put pressure on the national hospitals, which are already overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients.
Coast-to-coast hospitals already have almost no available intensive-care units and standard beds for the increase in patient numbers, according to data published by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Medical staff members prepare to perform a percutaneous tracheostomy procedure on a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 26, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
Go Nakamura | Getty Images
Earlier this month, the United States began rolling out vaccines to fight the disease. But health officials have warned that a vaccine will not provide the country with immediate relief from the outbreak.
The country’s health officials have previously said their goal is to vaccinate at least 20 million Americans with their first shots by the end of the year. They will fall far short of that goal.
Read more: Trump blames states while criticizing the slow rollout of the Covid vaccine
Monday morning, more than 11.4 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines were distributed across the country. About 2.1 million of those shots have been given to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump, who has been criticized for the missed vaccination target, has been blamed for the unorganized rollout of the vaccines among states.
“The federal government has provided the vaccines to the states,” the president said in a statement tweet. Now it is up to the states to manage. Get moving! ‘
CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger, Will Feuer and Noah Higgins Dunn contributed to this report.