Trump uses Germany's recent COVID-19 death spike to attack those who held it up as a model, despite the country's significantly lower death rate

• President Donald Trump highlighted Germany's spike in COVID-19 deaths in a Wednesday tweet arguing that Germany's pandemic response wasn't a model for the US.
• Germany still appears to be faring much better than the US, however, in terms of deaths both as a percentage of known cases and as a percentage of the population.
• The US has recorded 87.49 deaths per 100,000 people, while Germany has recorded 24.12 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump pointed to Germany's spike in COVID-19 deaths in a Wednesday tweet arguing that his "obnoxious critics" wrongly held up Germany's pandemic response as a model for the US.

"Germany has consistently been used by my obnoxious critics as the country that we should follow on the way to handle the China Virus," Trump tweeted, sharing an Associated Press story about Germany's surge in virus deaths. "So much for that argument. I love Germany - Vaccines on the way!!!"

On Wednesday, Germany reported 590 deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours - the country's highest death count in one day during the pandemic. The European country is seeing a spike in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations after maintaining one of the lowest death rates in Europe.

But Germany's rates of COVID-19 deaths both as a percentage of known coronavirus infections and as a percentage of the country's population remain much lower than the US's. The US has reported 87.49 deaths per 100,000 people, while Germany has reported 24.12 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. And the US death rate from COVID-19 is 1.9%, while Germany's is 1.6%.

Trump has previously made misleading comparisons between the US and Germany. In May, Trump claimed that the US mortality rate, which at the time was 24.66 deaths per 100,000 people, and Germany's mortality rate, which then was 9.24 per 100,000, were the best in the world. In fact, a slew of other countries had lower mortality rates at the time.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2020

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to abide by stricter virus-related regulations and called the latest numbers "very alarming." But Merkel doesn't have the power to issue national restrictions, as each of the country's 16 state governments are responsible for issuing and implementing their own lockdown policies.