Washington: President Donald Trump is projecting that coronavirus deaths in the United States could reach 70,000, but says original projections were much higher as he explained why voters should consider re-electing him in November.
Trump has at times this month cited 60,000 as the estimate of how many people would die from COVID-19. Trump was asked during a White House news conference on Monday whether an American president deserved to be re-elected after losing more Americans in six weeks than died in the Vietnam War.
Approximately 58,000 U.S. troops were killed during the Vietnam War. The number of dead in the U.S. from COVID-19 surpassed 55,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.