Trump says he was tested for coronavirus after his doctor said he wasn't

At a press conference on Saturday, Donald Trump announced that he had been tested for coronavirus.

“I also took the test last night,” he said. “I decided I should, based on the press conference yesterday. People were asking, did I take the test.”

But that isn’t what Trump’s doctor said in a letter released by the White House just before midnight Friday.

“[G]iven the President himself remains without symptoms, testing for COVID-19 is not currently indicated,” Sean P. Conley, physician to the president, wrote in a memo on Friday that was released by the White House. “I will continue to closely monitor and care for the President, and will update you as more information becomes available.”

Trump has come in contact with at least two people who have tested positive and several others who were exposed to people who have tested positive, including members of Congress.

But as of Friday afternoon, Trump insisted that he had not been tested and did not think it necessary to do so, despite his potential exposure to the virus.

“Well, I don’t know that I had exposure, but I don’t have any of the symptoms,” Trump said Friday. He added that he had asked his White House doctors, and they told him he did “not have any symptoms whatsoever.”

On Saturday, Trump said he did not know when he would receive the results of his test. “I don’t know, whatever it takes,” he said. “A day, two days — whatever it is.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.