Trump Says "It Is What It Is" When It Comes To The Coronavirus Death Toll!

Jonathan Swan had to listen to a rambling Donald Trump discuss his administration's handling of the coronavirus.

WEAR THE DAMN MASK. SAVE A LIFE!

Donald J. Trump does an interview with Axios. The interview was controversial.

In the interview he address his handling of the coronavirus. He dismisses the legacy of John Lewis, the Georgia congressman who was a civil rights leader. He complains about how the junk food media treats him. He criticizes Joe Biden. He criticized TikTok and China. He dismissed the Russian bounties scandal. He believes that the junk food media and Democrats are dogging him on Russia. He offered some sympathy to Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman who is accused of aiding a billionaire pedophile's molesting of underage girls and teenagers.

The interview was a train-wreck. It wasn't a Sean "Softball" Hannity type of interview but it was too easy on him.

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Trump told Axios' Jonathan Swan that the COVID-19 pandemic is "under control as much as you can control it" in the U.S.

"They are dying, that's true. And you have — it is what it is," Trump said. "But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague."

The interview was recorded last Tuesday, before the coronavirus-related death toll in the U.S. surpassed 150,000. The current death toll reached more than 155,000 as of Tuesday morning, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. currently has a seven-day average of 1,069 deaths per day, according to New York Times data.

At times, the interview turned combative as Swan pointed out the data Trump was referencing measured death as a proportion of cases instead of as a proportion of the population.

"I'm talking about death as a proportion of population," Swan said. "That's where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc."

"You can't do that," Trump responded, prompting Swan to ask, "Why can't I do that?"

The president maintained that the data should "go by the cases."

A visibly frustrated Donald Trump complains about how the media treats his administration in the wake of a pandemic.

"It's surely a relevant statistic to say if the U.S. has X population and X percentage of death of that population vs. South Korea," Swan said, citing reporting from Seoul showing 300 deaths out of the country's population of 51 million.

"You don't know that," Trump responded.

"You think they’re faking their statistics? South Korea?" Swan asked.

"I won't get into that because I have a very good relationship with the country," Trump answered. "But you don't know that, and they have spikes."

No experts or international authorities have made serious allegations against the accuracy of South Korea’s coronavirus reporting.

During the interview, the president also focused on the U.S.'s accomplishments in ventilator production, testing increases and improved treatment that has decreased the total fatality rate. He also repeated the claim that the U.S. has counted more cases because it has conducted more testing.

Trump downplayed the legacy of John Lewis in a new interview, instead repeatedly pointing to the Georgia Democrat's decision to not attend his 2017 inauguration.

"I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration," Trump said during an interview with Axios on HBO that aired Monday when asked how he thought history would remember Lewis, adding that he probably never met the the late congressman.

"I can't say one way or the other" Trump said when asked if he thought Lewis was impressive.

"I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive," he continued.

"He didn't come -- he didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my state of the union speeches. And that's OK. That's his right."

"He should've come. I think he made a big mistake," he said.