Fact Check: Trump Did NOT Say 'People Are Dying Who Have Never Died Before'

Fact Check

  • by: Lead Stories Staff
Fact Check: Trump Did NOT Say 'People Are Dying Who Have Never Died Before' Never Said!

Did President Trump make the nonsensical statement, "People are dying who have never died before," during a White House briefing updating the country on the state of his administration's response to the coronavirus? No, that's not true: A search of transcripts of Trump's remarks, as well as of news stories from the day of the purported statement, make no mention of the odd quote.

The claim appears in the form of memes in posts like this (archived here) published March 18, 2020. One example opened with the text "THE EPITOME OF STUPIDITY" and the meme read:

'People are dying who have never died before.' Donald J. Trump, March 18, 2020

Users on social media saw this:

Trump gave briefings on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, as the country saw more deaths and infections from COVID-19, Trump signed a massive relief bill to stimulate the economy and the stock market conitnued its sell-off. But at no time did the words come out of Trump's mouth.

Lead Stories, as well as Snopes and Politifact, did searches of databases of the president's public remarks. The quote that "People are dying who have never died before," appears in none of them. Nor did Trump, who takes to Twitter often to make public statements, tweet these words.

Simply put, the quote was fabricated, and social media appears to be the platform for a viral hoax.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion