Donald Trump goes off the deep end during bizarre coronavirus press conference

Donald Trump really wants you to know that when it comes to the coronavirus, everything is going to magically be just fine. He held a press conference this afternoon just to try to prove as much – but thanks to his inane rambling and obvious lies, he’s probably only served to make people more concerned about whether the United States is prepared for a potential epidemic.

Trump started off by trying to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus in the United States by asserting that only fifteen people have it. But considering the incubation period, that’s not necessarily true. Then he insisted that the infections have “slowed down” in the United States over the past few days. Okay, so we get it, he wants to convince everyone that things are just fine, so the stock market will stop plummeting.

But then Trump tried to claim that the coronavirus isn’t spreading in the United States because he closed the borders. It’s not clear what he’s even referring to; perhaps he’s suggesting that his imaginary border wall with Mexico is somehow stopping infected people from Asia from entering the United States. We knew sooner or later he’d try to make this into an anti-immigrant argument. Trump also wants you to know he’s not happy that he’s being “ridiculed” for how he’s handling this, because he’s made some “very good” decisions.

Donald Trump also claimed that a vaccine will be developed “fairly rapidly,” even though various experts have been quoted in the media as saying that it could take a year or more. Then he announced that he’s putting Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response to the coronavirus. It’s not clear if that’s somehow supposed to make us feel better.