Early yesterday morning, Trump tweeted the following:

The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low. “When in doubt, call it Covid.” Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2021

He is still trying desperately to ward off blame for his inept handling of the pandemic that has resulted in over 350,000 deaths and hospitals that have been stretched to their full capacity and more, so that they have had to set up beds in tents, gift shops, and chapels.

But he is discovering that as a lame duck president who is going to be out of office in less than three weeks (I feel like the guy in this cartoon), people in his own administration are feeling freer to challenge him on his distortion of facts.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday said he has “no reason to doubt” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 death toll, contradicting President Donald Trump’s claim that the agency has “exaggerated” its numbers.

“From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers,” Adams told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked about Trump’s claim.

“And I think people need to be very aware that it’s not just about the deaths, as we talked about earlier,” he added. “It’s about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways and people need to understand there’s a finish line in sight, but we’ve got to keep running toward it.”

Anthony Fauci has also contradicted Trump, saying that “the deaths are real deaths.”

Trump is clearly jealous of the positive press that Fauci is getting, saying that he “works for me … and I am in no way given any credit for my work.”

Trump is the perfect stereotype of a terrible boss, someone who takes credit for any success achieved by his employees and is quick to shift the blame to them if anything goes wrong. He does not realize that if you do the opposite, where you take the blame and deflect credit to others, the people who work for you will go to great effort to do their work well and that it will ultimately reflect well on you.