In late May 2020, readers searched the Snopes.com website questioning the veracity of a statement attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump, as quoted in a widely shared tweet posted by Washington Post journalist Felicia Sommez:
Sommez's tweet accurately captures Trump's statement regarding his diagnostic test result amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Trump made the remark on May 21, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House, as he was about to depart on Marine One for Michigan, where he toured a Ford manufacturing facility. Trump was responding to a reporter who asked how long the president expected to take hydroxychloroquine, a drug that Trump has been promoting as a potential treatment for COVID-19 without medical evidence for its safety or efficacy.
Here is a transcription of the exchange between the reporter and Trump, per WhiteHouse.gov:
Q Sir, how long do you expect take hydroxychloroquine?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s another day. I had a two-week regimen of hydroxychloroquine. And I’ve taken it, I think, just about two weeks. I think it’s another day. And I’m still here. I’m still here. And I tested very positively in a — in another sense.
So, this morning —
Q Negatively?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I tested positively toward negative, right? So, no, I tested perfectly this morning, meaning — meaning I tested negative.
Q Have you taken the antibody test yet?
THE PRESIDENT: But that’s a way of saying it: positively toward the negative.
Q Have you taken the antibody test yet, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I have not.
Because Trump did make the comment and it was reflected accurately by the tweet in question, we rate this claim "Correct Attribution."