Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) lavished praise on Donald Trump’s (widely panned) handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, declaring him to be the “greatest testing President God has ever created” in an awkward tweet.
The GOP lawmaker’s outlandish claim was made in defense of Trump, who is receiving ongoing criticism over the lack of adequate testing in the U.S. for the virus that has killed more than 37,000 nationwide. Public health experts say a vast increase in testing is essential to slowing its spread.
Gaetz, whose Twitter bio features a positive comment that Trump once said about him, drew stinging criticism in March for downplaying and mocking the threat of the virus (in lockstep with the president) by wearing a gas mask on the House floor.
He provoked similar ire with this tweet.
Some critics accused Gaetz of misrepresenting the statistics.
While it is factually accurate to say the U.S. “has tested more than anyone in the world by far” (3.5 million, as of Saturday morning), the country is actually lagging in around 40th position worldwide when it comes to per capita testing (around 10,800 per 1 million of the population):
Other commenters agreed with Gaetz’s inadvertent statement that Trump is “testing.” And, due to Gaetz’s clumsy phrasing of the tweet, “President God” also trended nationwide on Twitter:
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