President Donald Trump made an off-color joke during Friday afternoon’s coronavirus task force briefing when he was asked about the models seen this week projecting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.
Trump was discussing the different models that are used to predict the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic when his tone lightened a bit and he referenced a different kind of models.
“The models show hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. You know what I want to do? I want to come way under the model,” Trump said. “The professionals did the models. I was never involved in a model — at least, this kind of a model.”
“I want very few people, relative to what the models are saying,” Trump concluded. “Those are projections. I hope they are wrong. I hope we will be under those projections.”
The U.S. has seen at least 270,473 confirmed coronavirus cases and 6,889 deaths as of Friday evening.
