You can't believe a word Trump says about COVID (or anything else).

Donald Trump makes things up, and you can't believe a word he says.

We've known that all along. He constructs an artificial bubble of pseudo-reality in which he and his followers can live, shielded from the facts by a layer of "alternative facts" he makes up off the top of his head. And when it comes to the current pandemic, he's even less to believed than usual.

The United States is not doing anywhere near as well as Germany in dealing with COVID-19. Mr. Trump is simply wrong about that. To say that we're doing well if you take New York out of the picture is like a fat person saying that he isn't overweight if you exclude his potbelly. The projection of the University of Washington study which members of his own task force have praised and used themselves of 134,000 American deaths by August is not, contrary to what he claims, a theoretical model of what might happen without mitigation. To the contrary, those who made the prediction say

The revised projections reflect rising mobility in most U.S. states as well as the easing of social distancing measures expected in 31 states by May 11, indicating that growing contacts among people will promote transmission of the coronavirus... Our model now assumes that mandates that are currently still in place and have not been scheduled to be relaxed will stay in place through at least August 4.

In other words, the easing of mitigation measures at Mr. Trump's own urging is one reason why the projected number of deaths has increased and could increase further if mitigation efforts increase prematurely.

Mr. Trump falsely claims that the 8.3 million tests performed in the United States are more than "all the other countries combined." In fact, the other nine countries which have conducted the most tests have tested 18.7 people, and the United States lags far behind in the percentage of its population has been tested.

In short, as is usually the case when he speaks on any subject, Mr. Trump is talking through his hat when it comes to the pandemic. Nothing he says on the subject ought to be believed, certainly without being verified by sources that can be relied on, as he cannot be.