Yes, Trump said positive COVID-19 tests are making the U.S. “look bad,” referenced slowing testing

Months into the coronavirus pandemic, much remains unknown about the virus’ origins, transmission and longevity.

But the need for more testing is a point of near unanimous agreement among health officials, scientists and members of both political parties. It’s the pathway to better understanding how far the disease has spread, how common severe cases are and how best to address it.

So is the president pushing to limit testing?

A new attack ad from Priorities USA targeting Wisconsin and other battleground states makes that claim with a series of quotes from President Donald Trump. Over the mandatory ominous music, the ad plays four Trump quotes asserting testing is making America look bad, so we should slow it down.

Ads in this style have been known to pull quotes out of context or rearrange them chronologically to create a more compelling narrative.

That didn’t happen here.

America has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world — with 2.3 million as of June 24, 2020 — and has also done the most testing in the world, in terms of raw numbers. Across the nation we are conducting about 500,000 tests per day now, double where we were in early May, according to covidtracking.com.

That said, many countries have done more testing on a per-capita basis, as detailed by Johns Hopkins University. Throughout the pandemic the U.S. has averaged about 56 tests per day per 100,000 people. Germany, Canada, Spain and Australia have all tested at a higher rate, and Russia and Qatar are among a handful of countries that have topped 100 daily tests per 100,000 people.

Trump has boasted of the volume of testing in the past, saying America’s testing is the best in the world and that the high number of confirmed cases is a "badge of honor."

But since May, the president has also increasingly pushed back against testing, calling it "overrated" and noting the bad optics associated with the higher case counts. He took that line of reasoning a step farther in his latest comments, as detailed in the ad.

Here are the four quotes in context.

Trump said this May 6, 2020, during a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The quote

"The media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do, by far, the most testing.  If we did very little testing, we wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."

The context

Reynolds — a Republican — responded to Trump by highlighting the importance of testing: "That really provides us the data we need to understand the virus activity better." Trump, meanwhile, has made numerous similar comments, including a June 19, 2020, Wall Street Journal interview where he called testing "overrated" and said "in many ways, it makes us look bad."

Trump said this May 14, 2020, during an appearance in Pennsylvania.

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World Health Organization pandemic accord “would take away American sovereignty and give the WHO power to put in legally binding policies in America in the case of another pandemic."

The quote

"Don’t forget, we have more cases than anyone in the world, but why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases."

The context

Trump asserts there would be fewer cases if there were less testing. Of course, less testing would simply mean officials are aware of less cases, or there would be fewer identified cases — it wouldn’t mean fewer cases exist. 

But this line of thinking is consistent with other comments from the president, including a May 15, 2020, event where Trump said, "If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases," and "Maybe it (testing) is overrated."

These statements, used separately in the ad, are both from a June 20, 2020, rally in Oklahoma.

The quote

"You know, testing is a double-edged sword. We’ve tested now 25 million people. It’s probably 20 million people more than anybody else. German’s done a lot. South Korea’s done a lot. They called me, they said the job you’re doing (trails off). Here’s the bad part. When you’re testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’"

(Note: The U.S. has conducted more tests than any other country in terms of raw numbers, but the "20 million … more than anybody else" is wrong. Russia has conducted more than 17 million tests, according to tallies from Our World in Data)

The context

Various White House officials claimed Trump was speaking in "jest", was "obviously kidding" or was speaking "tongue in cheek" about slowing down testing. Trump himself has responded to this assertion multiple ways.

On June 23, 2020, he was asked specifically if he was kidding about slowing down testing. He responded, "I don’t kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear," then went on to talk about America having "the greatest testing program anywhere."

But in an interview that day with FOX News, Trump responded to a question  — "But you don’t mean, do you mean slow down testing?"  —  by backing away from the statement and reiterating the idea that the U.S. would look better if it tested less. 

"No I don’t mean slow down, but if we did slow down … let’s say instead of 25 million tests we did 5 million tests, we’d be very low in cases right now, and everyone would say, ‘Isn’t that wonderful,’" Trump told "Fox & Friends."

Dr. Anthony Fauci — part of the national coronavirus task force — said that day in testimony before Congress the federal government is trying to expand coronavirus testing, not slow it down. Fauci told the House Energy and Commerce Committee, "None of us have ever been told to slow down on testing."

An attack ad targeting various battleground states quotes Trump as saying testing makes the U.S. look bad, "so I said to my people slow the testing down."

Video recordings show he did indeed say these lines, and in the order presented. And the overall impression created by the ad is consistent with Trump’s messaging over the preceding month and a half.

As health officials and politicians alike have pushed for more testing, Trump has expressed increasing doubts as to its importance, progressing from calling it "overrated" to calling for the slow down. Though White House officials defended that as a joke, Trump at one point contradicted that, while at another saying he didn’t mean it.

We rate this claim True.