US President Donald Trump in an election campaign rally at Reno, Nevada on 12 September said that Prime Minister Modi called and praised him for doing an exceptional job with coronavirus testing in the country.
Trump is currently holding a series of rallies in some key states on the West Coast ahead of the 3 November presidential election.
“By far, we've tested more people than India, than many, many big countries put together. India is second (in coronavirus testing after the US). We're 44 million tests ahead of India. They have 1.5 billion people. And Prime Minister Modi calls me and says, what a job you’ve done with testing", Trump said.
Trump has been criticised by several different sections of the United States government and public for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Claims have been made that he knowingly played down the seriousness of the global pandemic, and actively spread misinformation himself.
He has been condemned in public and by the Opposition for his dealing of one of US’ worst crises in a century, as he pushed states to manage the situation on their own while being hard pressed for medical equipment.
"I said, explain that to these dishonest [media] people back [at the election rally]. Biden’s record demonstrates that if he had been in charge, when the China virus arrived, hundreds of thousands of more Americans would have died. As vice president, he presided over the worst and the weakest and the slowest economic recovery, since the great depression," Trump said in Reno, slamming Biden.
"Nobody had ever stood up to China like we have stood up to China and you haven't seen the last of it," he said.
During the rally, Trump further claimed that he has spent the last four years bringing jobs back to America, securing borders, rebuilding the military and standing up to China, like never before.
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