White House imposes testing requirement on staff as Trump says it's 'overrated'

The White House on Monday informed its staff that there will be random coronavirus testing for workers across the White House complex, Politico’s Gabby Orr reported.

The news of the new testing policy comes after multiple employees across the White House have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks — including Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller, one of Trump’s personal valets, and a White House cafeteria worker.

A number of GOP lawmakers have also tested positive for the virus, including Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who was slated to travel aboard Air Force One with Donald Trump.

Trump, however, has expressed his frustration over the amount of coronavirus testing across the country.

In mid-June, he called testing “overrated” and said that it “makes us look bad.”

Trump has also said numerous times that the massive number of cases in the United States is thanks to an increase in testing, and that without testing there wouldn’t be any cases.

Trump made that same baseless argument in a Monday morning tweet.

“Cases up because of BIG Testing! Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!” Trump tweeted.

Of course, this is absolutely false.

The number of cases has risen faster than the increase in tests, in many places across the country.

Trump has never explained why it’s imperative that those around him are tested often while he argues against testing average Americans.

Those “in close proximity” to Trump have been receiving coronavirus testing since the early days of the pandemic when regular Americans struggled to get tests themselves. In fact, some Americans are still struggling to get tests and to get results back quickly enough for the tests to be of use.

To date, more than 4.6 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the United States, with more than 155,000 dying from the virus.

Trump’s approval rating on the coronavirus is at its lowest level yet, with just 37.6% approving of his response, according to FiveThirtyEight’s average.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.