‘Misinformation and lying’: Trump blasted as ‘virus death toll truther’ amid reports he says numbers are exaggerated

"Trump is gonna ask to see the long form death certificates"

President Donald Trump has been telling White House aides he believes the death toll numbers from the coronavirus pandemic are exaggerated and that far fewer Americans have died from COVID-19. Experts have repeatedly said the numbers are far lower than what they actually are, citing a wide variety of reasons.

"President Trump has complained to advisers about the way coronavirus deaths are being calculated, suggesting the real numbers are actually lower — and a number of his senior aides share this view, according to sources with direct knowledge," Axios reports. "A senior administration official said he expects the president to begin publicly questioning the death toll as it closes in on his predictions for the final death count and damages him politically."

Supporting experts' claims are that large sudden deaths are being recorded across the country but not attributed to COVID-19, in large part because testing is still extremely limited. Not everyone who dies from the disease even knew they had it. And the lack of available testing has led doctors who believe patients died of coronavirus to list COVID-19 as the cause of death without a test.

"The number of people dying over the past few weeks, in many parts of the country, is a lot higher than average, suggesting that the official count of coronavirus-related deaths is still missing tens of thousands of people," Axios adds.

CNN's Daniel Dale quotes the President today:

The Internet is furious.

Trump is being labeled "a virus death toll truther" by The American Independent's Oliver Willis, while CNN's Oliver Darcy notes the right wing media machine has been pushing this false theory.

Take a look at some of the responses to the news: