Trump Dunks on Germany For Seeing Record Number of Coronavirus Deaths
Peter Nicholls/AFP, via Getty
Addressing the Bundestag on Wednesday morning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed some optimism about the coronavirus pandemic in the nation, while also calling for greater effort in social distancing and other measures as the death toll and rate of new cases in the country continues to climb. President Donald Trump responded to her commentary with a Twitter dunk.
Germany saw over 20,000 new cases and close to 600 coronavirus-related deaths in a single day this week, a record total in the country’s handling of the pandemic. Merkel addressed the German parliament Wednesday afternoon, and in the face of some “heckling” from the opposition called for tougher restrictions to reduce the amount of contact among citizens and to increase the effectiveness of social distancing and other measures to control the spread.
The AP reported on Merkel’s address, and when writer Ciarán Ó Fathaigh tweeted about it, Trump maturely took the opportunity of those hundreds of fatalities to lay a sick burn on an entire country, along with his critics.
Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus. So much for that argument. I love Germany – Vaccines on the way!!! https://t.co/hEeKIqDMQn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020
The “it’s not fair” petulant temper tantrum is nothing new for a Trump tweet, of course. Though, choosing to dunk on an entire nation over their death toll is perhaps a bit more on the nose for his temperament than usual. But reports of his increasingly unsettled mental state after badly losing a fair election he was promised by yes men that he would win may indicate the real source behind his callous fist-pumping over dead people before Christmas.
As for Merkel, she faced similar objections at home from the right.
On Twitter, Trump critics were quick to remind him of the U.S. death toll on the same day.
At a time of year that, theoretically, encourages hopefulness and care for one’s fellow man, perhaps it’s more appropriate to hope and pray that each nation can recover from the pandemic alike, rather than keeping score for the purposes of dunk trading.
