A damning new montage, released Friday by The Atlantic, compares U.S. President Donald Trump’s wild and often misleading rhetoric about the coronavirus to what other world leaders have said about the pandemic.
In the video, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and others strike a sobering tone as they call for international cooperation and ask citizens for their help in slowing the spread of the virus.
The clips of Trump, however, show him downplaying the threat of COVID-19, calling the virus by a racist term, attacking journalists and pondering injecting disinfectant as a treatment.
The supercut omits comments from other leaders such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who also initially downplayed the threat of the public health crisis and boasted about shaking hands with people during a visit to a hospital. Johnson later contracted the virus and was hospitalized for one week.
The video, headlined “Donald Trump: A Study in Leadership,” ends with Trump referring to the virus as “the plague.”
Check out The Atlantic’s montage here:
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