Trump says coronavirus is 'God testing me' to build economy again

Tim O'Donnell

August 17, 2020 at 4:49 PM·2 min read

President Trump on Monday blasted his likely presidential challenger former Vice President Joe Biden during a speech in Manakato, Minnesota, saying he'd "abolish the American way of life" en route to turning the U.S. into a "very boring socialist country that will go to hell." He then had a go at Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for co-sponsoring a "socialist takeover of health care."

The president also joked the coronavirus pandemic was "God testing me" to rebuild the U.S. economy a second time. He zeroed in on New Zealand, a country which, to Trump's apparent chagrin, has won praise for containing the virus. Recently, though, New Zealand has had a flare-up, and Trump made sure the crowd in Minnesota knew about it. While New Zealanders are certainly concerned about the virus resurfacing after several months, just nine new infections were reported Monday, far lower than the average daily number of cases in the United States, which Trump maintains has handled the pandemic with aplomb.

"All of a sudden a lot of the places they were using to hold up, they are having a big surge ... New Zealand, you see what's going on in New Zealand" -- New Zealand had nine (9!) new Covid cases today. The US had more than 42,000.
The outbreaks are not comparable. pic.twitter.com/T8ugmKK6aa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2020

The speech also included a defense of the Minneapolis Police Department, which has come under fire in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and criticism of the Minneapolis protests. "The city was ablaze," he lamented.

Trump says this of Minneapolis cops: "The police department is very good but they were told you can't do anything. They have to be able to do what they do very well." (Recall that people were protesting in Mpls after George Floyd was killed by a cop.) pic.twitter.com/nQJZp9P3a0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2020