Trump Suggests Stopping COVID-19 Tests Would Result In Fewer Cases

One Twitter user took the president's logic to its extreme and suggested, "If you stopped charging people with murder you'd have no murder convictions."
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President Donald Trump has made a lot of concerning statements about COVID-19, but he outdid himself on Monday.

During a roundtable on “Fighting for America’s Seniors,” the president suggested that not testing for the coronavirus could be one way of reducing reported cases.

“If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” the president said.

Trump on the number of coronavirus cases, per pool: “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) June 15, 2020

It’s an argument the president has made before. To be clear: Not testing people for COVID-19 would reduce the number of new cases being reported, but would have no effect on reducing the number of people who actually have the disease.

Vice President Mike Pence supported the president’s statement, which Trump may have meant as a PR tactic rather than literal scientific evidence. Trump has consistently been concerned about the PR aspect of rising coronavirus figures.

Still, Twitter users had a field day taking the president’s quotes to hilarious extremes.

And if we got rid of the bathroom scale, I'd fit into skinny jeans. https://t.co/G3CFLFUbAv

— Kevin Allman (@KevinAllman) June 15, 2020

When I was struggling in math, I kept telling teachers to stop testing me

— Gregory Zuckerman (@GZuckerman) June 15, 2020

"If I close my eyes right now, it won't be sunny anymore!"

— Trumpy Trumpy (parody) (@outofcontroljb) June 15, 2020

If I stare into an eclipse before you tell me it's one I will be fine

— RJ O. (@YeahHeDid) June 15, 2020

Big “if I don’t check my bank account, the problem doesn’t exist!!!” energy https://t.co/ZK4wyNvbCc

— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) June 15, 2020

Well, yes, in the same way that if you stopped charging people with murder you'd have no murder convictions. https://t.co/YjxfENJVoU

— Philip Bump (@pbump) June 15, 2020

“If we got rid of X-rays we’d have very few cavities, if any.” https://t.co/7G9rfWrTl4

— Michael Green (@andmichaelgreen) June 15, 2020

Does this work with student loans? https://t.co/3yGgaPnVRv

— Erica Pishdadian (@ericapishdadian) June 15, 2020

If we stopped giving children grades in school, everyone would be a genius. https://t.co/H8sv47IsRk

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) June 15, 2020
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