Washinton: President Donald Trump called for a sentence of one year in jail for burning American flags, claimed victory in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals this week and called political opponent Joe Biden a puppet of the radical left and of China during a rally in Tulsa, Okla., Saturday.
He also said he had told officials in his administration to “slow the testing down” because an increase in testing would lead to an increase in coronavirus cases, referred to the novel coronavirus as the “Kung Flu” and blamed China for its arrival in the United States.
The Tulsa rally was not the first time Trump has talked about making choices that would keep the reported rate of coronavirus infection in the United States low: in March he said he would prefer not to allow an American cruise ship with infected passengers onboard to dock on the United States because “I would rather have the numbers being where they are.”
But after his speech a White House official said the president was “clearly joking” about deliberately slowing the rate of testing.
Facing a smaller crowd than expected, Trump also criticized demonstrations in large liberal cities, specifically calling out the removal of Confederate statues, and protesters’ toppling of a statue of George Washington in Portland, Ore. and the creation of a police-free protest zone in Seattle after police abandoned a precinct.
