What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to lie with statistics about Americans dying of COVID-19.

Today, Trump tweeted that the United States has "the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World" from the COVID-19 pandemic. His press secretary later repeated the claim. Neither provided evidence.

In reality, the United States has one of the highest rates of death from COVID-19. Of all countries where the virus is currently spreading, only the United Kingdom has suffered more deaths per capita than the United States.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Overall, the United States has the ninth-highest rate in the world. Because the virus is spreading uncontrolled here, the United States is likely to rise on that list past countries like France and Spain that were hit hard early, but whose governments moved much more quickly and forcefully to fight the spread of the disease.

Trump's statements did not affect the count of confirmed deaths, which was just shy of 133,000 as of Monday night.

Why does this matter?

• Lying about people dying doesn't stop them from dying.