The Orange Loon's at it again.
Yeah, I know I seem to refer to him a lot but come on, the man is comedy gold.
Once again he was confronted by his nemesis, Yamiche Alcindor, PBS's excellent White House correspondent who has two characteristics that Trump cannot abide. One: she's a woman, and two: she is African-American.
For the past week or so, DT has been bragging about how much the US has been testing for the coronavirus, without taking into account the concept of per capita when comparing the States to other countries.
The exchange between Alcindor and The Loon went like this:
Alcindor: "Mr President, you've said several times that the United States has ramped up testing."
The Loon nods sagaciously (probably without knowing what that means).
Alcindor: "But the USA is still not testing per capita as many people as other countries, like South Korea. Why is that, and when do you think that number will be on par with other countries?"
Orange Loon: "Well, it's very much on par. The...the..look...look..."
Alcindor: "Not per capita."
Orange Loon: "Well, per capita, we have areas of country that's very wi...(doesn't finish the word and spreads hands as if playing the accordion). I know South Korea better than anybody. It's a very tight... Do you know how many people are in Seoul? Do you know how big the city of Seoul is? Thirty-eight million people."
At which point, the President of South Korea, if he was watching (though I doubt it. He's probably got more things on his mind than the inane ramblings of his opposite number in the White House, who spends more time on his tanning bed than affairs of state) would have thought (in Korean, obviously): WTF? We're gonna need more masks.
Oh, Lordy, where does one start? Well, let's try for a fact check.
Population of Seoul: 9.8 million (approx). Population of Seoul metro area: 25.6 million (approx). Population of South Korea: 51.3 million (approx).
And here's the kicker.
Elevation (height above sea level) of Seoul: 38m (give or take the odd centimetre).
Now, call me a cynic, but is it possible the self-proclaimed stable genius doesn't understand the term 'per capita' and has no idea what 'elevation' means? Maybe he can't read. Or maybe he's not a genius. Mmn.