Trump Said He Told Officials To

At his first campaign rally in months in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, President Trump said he told "his people" to "slow down" coronavirus testing so the number of COVID-19 cases don't increase.

"When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases," Trump said. "So I said to my people, 'slow the testing down, please.' They test and they test."

He told the smaller-than-expected crowd that "testing is a double-edged sword" because the "bad part" is the increase in recorded coronavirus cases.

Trump also used racist terms to refer to the coronavirus in his speech, calling it the "Chinese virus" and "kung flu" as his supporters cheered and clapped.

Health officials have long emphasized that widespread testing is key to containing and preventing the virus from spreading further. The Trump administration has been criticized for its slow response to the coronavirus outbreak from the start, including the failure to implement widespread testing.

The White House did not immediately return BuzzFeed News' request for comment, but Wall Street Journal reporter Michael C. Bender tweeted during the speech that an anonymous administration official told him Trump was joking about slowing down testing.

2.25 million people in the US have tested positive for the coronavirus to date, and 119,654 people have died - the highest COVID-19 death toll of any country in the world.

The CDC did not immediately return BuzzFeed News' request for comment about Trump's remarks.

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