Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Wednesday declared that President Trump does not care about the Americans who have died as a result of the Chinese coronavirus and proclaimed that his true desire to reopen the economy is rooted in holding “his white power pep rallies.”

“Trump doesn’t care about the 80,000+ people who’ve died from #Coronavirus!” Waters exclaimed.

“He only wants to open up the economy so he can go back to having his white power pep rallies! The death & economic devastation we are facing is b/c Trump failed to act early & called #COVID19 a HOAX!” she added:

Despite Waters’ assertion, Trump never referred to the virus as a “hoax.” The left-wing talking point was birthed following a February rally in Charleston, South Carolina. The president told the crowd that Democrats were “politicizing the coronavirus” — an assertion that has proven to be true in recent weeks, given the Democrats’ repeated attempts to pack party agenda items in coronavirus relief measures. Trump added that Democrats’ desire to blame him is the “new hoax” — not the virus itself.

“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything,” Trump told the crowd.

“They tried it over and over. They’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning. They lost, it’s all turning. Think of it, and this is their new hoax’” Trump added.

Waters’ remarks come as Americans across the country demand their leaders to reopen the economy so they can return to work and resume their livelihoods. Jobless claims now stand at roughly 36.5 million since the start of the pandemic. However, some leaders, like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), are remaining obstinate, while other governors, like Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp (R), are allowing their states to slowly return to normal.

Waters said during a Monday appearance on Spectrum News 1’s Inside the Issues that Americans participating in Reopen America protests “should be ashamed of themselves.”

President Trump told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that some Democrats want the economy to remain shut down to boost their chances of defeating him in November.

“I think it’s a political thing,” Trump said.

“The people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open,” the president continued.

“You know, if it was up to some people let’s keep it closed for a long time … and watch the United States go down the tubes. Not gonna happen. Never gonna happen on my watch,” he added.

Conservative talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh floated the same idea, telling listeners this week that the “American left and the Democrat Party is going to do its best to keep this economy shut down, to extend and expand that shutdown — and blow up their own country’s jobs — just to ensure that Trump loses.”

“The economic activity that will happen from the red states going back to work, the blue state governors are gonna try to cancel it out by keeping their people at home,” Limbaugh predicted.

“They’re gonna wreck the economy,” he added. “Their objective is to wreck the economy and get rid of Trump.”