President Trump appeared to downplay the United States' unparalleled coronavirus death toll in an interview that aired Monday, saying that the rate of about 1,000 Americans dying every day from the pandemic "is what it is." The president also rejected data showing the high rates of coronavirus deaths in proportion to the U.S.

Trump made the remarks in an interview with Axios' Jonathan Swan, who challenged the president on his claims that the pandemic is under control, even as infections are soaring in many states and the U.S.

leads the world in confirmed cases and deaths.

.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases.

Trump told Swan.

by far leads all other nations in confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 4.7 million infections and 155,000 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. That represents nearly 25% of the global death toll from the virus.

Trump and Swan also clashed over data about the pandemic in the U.S., with the president preferring to use statistics that make the death rate seem less severe.

deaths to the country's total cases — rather than the proportion of deaths in relation to the U.S.

Trump said

Swan said that, as an example, South Korea has reported just 300 deaths in a population of more than 51 million people

The president this week falsely claimed that the virus is "receding," while members of the White House coronavirus task force said the pandemic is in a new phase where it is widespread in rural as well as urban areas