Trump Flubs on Population of Seoul During Coronavirus Briefing
President Donald Trump, on Monday at the coronavirus daily press conference, got into a fiery exchange with White House PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor which ended up displaying the president’s overconfidence resulting in a flub. Trump failed to identify the population of Seoul, South Korea, correctly.
Trump stated, “We have areas of the country that’s very large. I know South Korea better than anybody. It’s very tight. Do you know how many people in Seoul?”
“Do you know how big the city of Seoul is?” Trump asked Alcindor.
“38 million people,” he stated, responding to his own question.
(Notably, the population of the country of South Korea is nearly 52 million and in the city of Seoul slightly below 10 million.)
Trump continued, “That’s bigger than anything we have. 38 million people, all tightly wound together. We have vast farmlands. We have vast areas where they don’t have much of a problem. In some cases, they have no problem whatsoever. 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 stated.
One Twitter user pointed out that if you Google search “Seoul” – one result yields “38 M” referring to the meters above sea-level the city sits.
Trump just said Seoul has “38 million people” in it. That’s such an oddly wrong and yet specific number, I did a google search for Seoul. pic.twitter.com/iuK0g6iBSo
— Adam Bates (@AdamTaylorBates) March 30, 2020
Watch above, via MSNBC.
