WATCH: John Oliver Destroys Trump On Coronavirus Lies That Are ‘All Over The Place’

On the HBO program Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver put considerable focus on the top issue concerning the world as of late: the spread of coronavirus.

Oliver provided a reasoned and informed analysis of what coronavirus is, describing its symptoms and detailing those who were at greatest risk (namely, the elderly and those with underlying health problems).

Unfortunately, Oliver also pointed out that the White House’s messaging about the disease has “been all over the place,” noting that the biggest culprit of misinformation has been President Donald Trump himself.

“On Tuesday [last week], the very same day the CDC said that the spread of coronavirus in the United States was not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when,’ one of Trump’s top advisers was on TV saying this…” Oliver said. He then played a clip of Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who said that the containment of coronavirus in the U.S. was either “airtight” or “close to airtight.”

“Well, which is it? Because, airtight versus close to airtight is a pretty crucial distinction,” Oliver said.

The HBO host also noted that Trump’s main focus seems to be “downplaying any potentially bad news” rather than informing the American people about the seriousness of the outbreak.

Trump’s health officials during a press conference last Wednesday would say one thing, and the president would try to “massage it into something else,” Oliver said.

To demonstrate this, Oliver showed footage of CDC and other health officials saying they expected more cases, and juxtaposed their concerns with Trump saying that 15 cases across the country (at the time) would be down to “close to zero” within a couple of days.

It’s since gone up.

Watch the segment below:

Oliver further demonstrated that Trump didn’t seem to know anything about the virus in his statements over the past two weeks, including claiming that coronavirus could be gone by the time springtime temperatures roll around.

“A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat. Typically that will go away in April. We’re in great shape, though,” Trump said in the middle of February.

That statement and others like it from the president prompted the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, to say unequivocally that Trump’s words were optimistic, at best, and probably wrong.

“We don’t know a lot about this virus,” Redfield said at the time. “This virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission.”

Featured image credit: Steve Jennings/Wikimedia