The United States recorded more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, the highest figure in nearly two months. On Tuesday, President Trump held his first televised briefing on the pandemic since April. After months of downplaying the pandemic and claiming it was dying out, Trump admitted the crisis will continue to worsen.

President Donald Trump: “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better — something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is. It’s the way — it’s what we have. You look over the world, it’s all over the world.”

Trump did not invite doctors Anthony Fauci or Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force to speak at the briefing. Trump falsely claimed the United States has a lower fatality rate than “almost everywhere else in the world.” The United States actually has the world’s 10th-highest rate of reported deaths and by far the most total deaths and infections. The U.S. death toll has now topped 142,000, and nearly 4 million Americans have been infected, though both numbers are believed to be undercounts.