No, US COVID-19 deaths didn’t top 1 million under Trump | Fact check

A Sept. 10 Threads post (direct link, archive link) by the actor and comedian D.L. Hughley shares the purported scale of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. under former President Donald Trump.
“FYI! A million more Americans died during Trumps handling of Covid, than died during Bidens handling of Afghanistan! (sic)” the post reads.
The post was liked more than 2,000 times in six days.
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The post overstates the number of COVID-19 deaths reported in the U.S. during Trump’s presidency. At the time Trump left office in January 2021, the death toll had surpassed 400,000, according to multiple health organizations. The U.S. marked 1 million COVID-19 deaths in May 2022.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing attack during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Trump criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the evacuation during a high-profile visit to Arlington National Cemetery and again during his presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
These casualties represent the total U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan recorded during Biden’s presidency, according to the Defense Department’s Defense Casualty Analysis System.
Hughley, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Harris’ presidential nomination, appears to juxtapose the number of casualties in Afghanistan under Biden with the toll of Americans who died as a result of COVID-19 during Trump’s presidency.
But the Threads post overcounts the number of COVID-19 deaths reported in the U.S. under Trump. At the time Trump left office in January 2021, the COVID-19 death toll was significantly under 1 million, according to multiple health organizations.
World Health Organization data shows COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. totaled about 407,000 by Jan. 17, 2021, three days before Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 444,000 U.S. deaths by Jan. 16, 2021, according to the agency’s COVID DataTracker.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported about 401,000 deaths on Jan. 16, 2021.
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COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. topped 1 million in May 2022, multiple reliable news organizations reported at the time. Biden acknowledged this mark in a May 12, 2022, statement, saying, “Today, we mark a tragic milestone: one million American lives lost to COVID-19.”
Researchers contend COVID-19 death tallies may undercount the true scale of the pandemic’s death toll in the U.S. This was the focus of a study published in June 2023 in Science Advances that estimated all-cause excess mortality in the U.S. during the first two years of the pandemic.
But even here, the number of estimated excess deaths didn’t top 1 million during Trump’s presidency. From March 2020 to February 2021, the study estimated 634,830 excess deaths occurred. From March 2021 to February 2022, it estimated 544,194 excess deaths occurred.
A representative for Hughley, Yvette Shearer, provided a May 2022 NBC News report about the U.S. reaching 1 million COVID-19 deaths as the source for the claim in the post.
The article covers territory including Trump’s downplaying of the virus while in office and frustration among some in the medical community with people deciding to forgo vaccination. But the article does not pin 1 million COVID-19 deaths solely on the Trump administration’s response to the virus, nor does it say 1 million Americans died as a result of COVID-19 during Trump’s term in office.
While COVID-19 deaths didn’t reach 1 million under Trump’s administration, doctors and public health experts continue to grapple with misinformation about the disease and COVID-19 vaccines, which the CDC says are effective at protecting against serious illness and death.
Eric Topol, director of Scripps Translational Research Institute, told USA TODAY the politicization of COVID-19 vaccines promoted by Trump and Republicans was part of the reason millions of Americans never received a vaccine.
Topol also noted that comparing different portions of the pandemic can’t be done in a “meaningful” way since vaccines were not widely available during Trump’s presidency and more infectious variants emerged after Trump left office.
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