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President Trump grew combative with reporters during his news conference Monday when they asked about his past comments on the coronavirus pandemic and testing in other countries.

Trump stood by previous comments he made early on in the United States response to the coronavirus pandemic again saying that the virus “will go away.”

“What do you say to Americans who are upset with you?” asked CNN’s Jim Acosta, who cited statements the President made in the past where he downplayed the crisis, including saying the virus would “go away.”

“Isn’t that true it will go away?” the President asked. In his previous comments, Trump said the virus would “just go away,” as the weather got warmer. “It’s going to disappear,” Trump said in February. “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear”

At his Rose Garden news conference Monday, the President implied that in his previous statements, he was simply trying to keep Americans calm.

“I do want them to stay calm,” he said, “and we are doing a great job.”

Trump then said if he wanted to cause panic, he could. “I could cause panic much better than even you. I would make you look like a minor league player,” he said to Acosta.

When PBS NewsHour’s Yamiche Alcindor asked about how the United States is still not testing per-capita as many people as other countries like South Korea, Trump said “it is very much on par.”

“Look, per capita, we have areas — I know South Korea better than anybody. It is very tight. You know how big the city of Seoul is? 38 million people, bigger than anything we have. 38 million people all tightly wound together. We have vast farmland, we have vast areas where they don’t have a problem. In some cases they have no problem whatsoever.”

He continued: “We have done more tests — I didn’t talk about per capita. We have done more tests, by far, than any country in the world. By far. Our testing is also better than any country in the world.”

Trump was wrong about the population of Seoul —the city has population of less than 10 million people.

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