US PRESIDENT Joe Biden channelled his Irish roots to deliver a scathing assessment of Donald Trump’s attempts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, who has family roots in Carlingford, Co Louth, slammed his predecessor for not ordering enough vaccines to inoculate the American people against the virus.
Speaking from a Pfizer manufacturing site in Michigan, the newly-elected leader didn’t hold back in his assessment of Trump, using the distinctly Irish phrase “God love him” to condemn the former President’s approach.
Biden said: "Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor — as my mother would say, 'God love him' — failed to order enough vaccines, failed to mobilise the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centres. That changed the moment we took office."
Earlier this week, Biden revealed plans to provide 600 million vaccine doses to the American public by the end of July as part of a major plan to help ease the US out of the current crisis.
The US President appeared confident of success, telling reporters they were “making progress” in tackling the pandemic.
He said: "We deployed more vaccinators, the people who put the vaccine in your arm. We’re now making it possible for retired doctors and nurses to come back and, under the law, administer these shots. We’ve put new vaccinators in the field.
"These include over 800 medical personnel from our Commissioned Corps at the Department of Health and Human Services, and personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — FEMA — the Defense Department, the National Guard.
“We’re literally lining up — we’re lining up thousands of vaccinators, because it’s one thing to have the vaccine, and it’s very different to get it in someone’s arms."
The comments came on a day where Trump was seen alongside his wife Melania at an event together for the first time since leaving the White House.
The former first lady posed for pictures alongside the ex-president at their resort in Florida on Valentine’s Day.
