John Oliver takes apart 'callous' Trump over handling of coronavirus outbreak

TV host jokes about the US President's false statements and 'indifference to human life' on Last Week Tonight

John Oliver has struck out at Donald Trump again over his handling of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

On his HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the comedian called out the US President for failing to appreciate the human cost of the crisis, and for continuing to make false statements in press conferences.

“It now seems that every Trump press conference has to come with an epilogue from an expert clarifying all the things he just got wrong,” Oliver joked.

The British-American TV personality spotlighted a clip of Trump talking about the Grand Princess cruise ship, the vessel carrying 21 infected passengers off the coast of California. Trump said: “I would rather have the numbers [of infected people and deaths within US borders] stay where they are.”

“But if they want to take them off [the ship], they’ll take them off. But if that happens, all of a sudden your 240 [infected in the US] is obviously going to be a much higher number, and probably the 11 [dead in the US] will be a higher number too.”

“Yeah, it will,” Oliver replied. “But you get that those numbers are also people, right? And that things that happen on boats still count, right?”

“I would say it’s impossible to have such a callous indifference to human life, but [Trump] does seem to have a natural ability for it.”

Oliver also criticised the President a week ago, in similarly stark terms.