Lincoln got better press treatment, Trump claims, as he ups pandemic death estimate

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 7:29 AM ET, Mon May 4, 2020

(CNN)After admitting US coronavirus deaths could hit 90,000, President Donald Trump is bemoaning his own plight — complaining that he has been treated worse by the press than Abraham Lincoln.

Trump’s comments, at the memorial in Washington to a president assassinated after emancipating the slaves during the Civil War, are likely to further polarize the raging politics of a current crisis that is stretching national unity.

“I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen,” Trump said at the Fox News town hall Sunday night.

“The closest would be that gentleman right up there,” Trump said, pointing to the 16th President’s statue. “They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.”

Trump was speaking at the time of a widening divide between states that are opening economies and others that are warning of premature declarations of victory amid soaring tensions fomented by weeks of coronavirus lockdowns.

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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/politics/trump-lincoln-press-treatment-deaths/index.html