COVID-19 news: 100,000 U.S. deaths can't stop Donald Trump from being hateful

The United States crossed a brutal threshold on Tuesday: 100,000 Americans have now officially lost their lives to COVID-19. That’s likely an undercount of the true number, but it's the number we have right now, and it’s a staggering toll in just a matter of months. It’s also news that comes the day after Memorial Day—a month after Mike Pence predicted: “I think by Memorial Day weekend we will have this coronavirus epidemic behind us.” 

All of the rest of the day’s news has to be viewed against this backdrop. Like the fact that 11 days after the House passed another relief bill, the Senate is in recess. State budget deadlines are coming up and people are still dying, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in no hurry to help. He did take a victory lap back home in Kentucky, though.

Beyond that? 

● Donald Trump chose this day to lie about the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, saying the Obama administration’s handling of it was a “complete and total disaster,” so apparently Trump’s weekend of golfing and tweeting insults about women’s appearances didn’t put him in a better or more truthful mood.

● Trump also released a new plan for coronavirus testing. The plan is to put the burden on the states. Which is what the administration has been doing all along. Democratic leaders are not impressed.

● The World Health Organization warned that this is still the first wave of the pandemic. There’s a second wave coming once we get through this one. Which, as a reminder, has killed 100,000 people in the U.S. so far.

So much about how the coronavirus is playing out is showing how power works in the United States. You’ve got nursing homes, which account for about 40% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, spending millions lobbying governments to be sure they’re not held liable for those deaths.

● Thousands and thousands of meatpacking workers have tested positive for the virus, but we don’t know how many because local health officials defer to the meatpacking industry and its desire for secrecy. Coronavirus is hitting Latino communities hard for reasons that are basically a map of racial and economic inequality.

● And to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, all those people are "human capital stock" who should be getting back to work any day now.

By the way, 100,000 people are dead and the toll keeps rising.

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