U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks at his campaign rally on August 20, 2020 in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. Photo / Getty
U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks at his campaign rally on August 20, 2020 in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. Photo / Getty
Embattled US President Donald Trump has once again taken aim at New Zealand over our recent resurgence of coronavirus, describing yesterday's five new cases as a "massive break out" as US cases continue to grow by tens of thousand everyday.
Speaking to a crowd in Pennsylvania, Trump said: "You look at our mortality rates, you look at all the things but they like to compare us to others so they were talking about New Zealand.
"New Zealand, New Zealand, it's over for New Zealand, everything's gone, it's all over - they're beautiful," said Trump, referencing the global acclaim New Zealand received for its response.
"They had a massive break out yesterday."
Here he goes with New Zealand again. They had 6 cases.
The US death toll from Covid-19 is rapidly approaching 175,000 while New Zealand's stands at 22.
On the day that we recorded five new cases, the US recorded 46,500 according to the Centre for Disease Control.
Trump's comments are the third time this week that he has referenced New Zealand as he attempts to paint his handling of the pandemic in a better light.
The US President, whose administration has been battling the highest recorded coronavirus case numbers in the world, said yesterday that his critics were using Kiwi success at fighting Covid-19 to make him look bad
"New Zealand, by the way, had a big outbreak, and other countries that were held up to try and make us look not as good as we should look, and we've done an incredible job," he claimed.
"They're having a lot of outbreaks, but they'll be able to put them out, and we'll be able put them out."
Those comments followed some earlier this week, addressing a crowd in Mankato, Minnesota.
"You see what's going on in New Zealand?" Trump said.
"They beat it, they beat, it was like front page [news], they beat it because they wanted to show me something."
"The problem is [there is a] big surge in New Zealand, you know it's terrible - we don't want that.
"This is an invisible enemy, that should have never been let to come to this country, to Europe to the rest of the world, by China, just remember it," he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Trump's claims were"patently wrong".
"Obviously I don't think there's any comparison between New Zealand's current cluster and the tens of thousands of cases that are being seen daily in the United States," Ardern said.
"Obviously, every country is experiencing its own fight with Covid-19; it is a tricky virus, but not one where I would compare New Zealand's current status to the United States."
