The Dow Jones plummeted by over 2,000 points on Monday as cases of COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, continue to spread across the United States and the rest of the world.
President Donald Trump has largely dismissed the highly contagious virus as little more than a mild case of the flu, in an attempt to stabilize the stock market, whose prosperity has been one of his largest talking points in favor of his reelection in November.
The Dow Jones opened at 1,800 points down and continued to drop well over 2,000 points. The S&P 500 fell seven percent, triggering an automatic temporary halt on trading to avoid a free fall.
Given the state of the stock market on Monday, a two week old tweet from Trump declaring the virus "very much under control" and that the stock market was "starting to look very good" received renewed attention.
The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries.… https://t.co/OwF1dR3caM— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1582580522.0
While the market has plummeted, cases of coronavirus have only grown, with over 500 cases in 32 states. Twenty-two people have died in the United States due to the virus. The number of diagnosed cases may be undercounted, given the bungled rollout of crucial testing kits.
Nevertheless, Trump continued to downplay the severity of the outbreak as recently as Monday morning.
So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is… https://t.co/yFtpDzcod4— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1583765279.0
But the tweet claiming the virus was "under control" and the stock market "starting to look very good" hasn't aged well.
Aged like milk. https://t.co/jHoH1w0MJi— Criostoir 🇮🇪 (@Criostoir 🇮🇪) 1583762879.0
Our very stable genius two weeks ago. @realDonaldTrump, the best thing you can do for our country is to RESIGN. Sta… https://t.co/xiAzczmsPl— rick derevan (@rick derevan) 1583776603.0
Narrator: it got worse https://t.co/PEIK4RfcOe— J. Walker (@J. Walker) 1583762233.0
The self-described "stable genius" who claims an affinity with a "super genius" uncle couldn't have been more wrong. https://t.co/hw8RkJxz1t— Philip J Cunningham (@Philip J Cunningham) 1583772909.0
For many of Trump's stances during his tenure as President, there's "always a tweet" from years before that directly contradicts his current position.
In this case, people realized that window of time was growing shorter.
I'm old enough to remember when you had to go back 6-7 years to find a stupid Trump tweet. Now you just need to go… https://t.co/awayK5duzt— Ed Bott (@Ed Bott) 1583719130.0
The half-life on "there's always a Tweet" is about to hit real time. https://t.co/CYQldt1Y0g— Shannon McCormick (@Shannon McCormick) 1583767510.0
There's always a tweet. This one is just a few weeks old: https://t.co/OqbcFShDng— Laura Walker ⚖🍸🇺🇸 🏴 (@Laura Walker ⚖🍸🇺🇸 🏴) 1583760357.0
Trump may be starting to learn that a potential pandemic can't be edited away with a sharpie—it requires decisive action toward containment, informed by experts.