President Donald Trump on Wednesday boasted about his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic -- and told a blatant lie about taking the virus seriously from the start.
Writing on Twitter, the president attacked media fact checkers who accurately transcribed his past attempts to play down the seriousness of the virus, and he insisted that everything in his administration has been running smoothly.
"I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the 'borders' from China -- against the wishes of almost all," he wrote. "Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!"
In reality, Trump has regularly tried to dismiss the virus as not a big deal.
Just last week, for example, he was still comparing it to the seasonal flu and boasted that its impact on the United States was very minimal.
"Nothing is shut down, life and the economy go on," he wrote on Twitter. "At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 22 deaths. Think about it!"
Just nine days later, the number of documented coronavirus cases has increased by a magnitude of 12, while the number of deaths has increased five fold.