Trump was triumphant after leaving the hospital, but he didn’t say this about COVID-19

President Donald Trump isn’t afraid of hyperbole. But if a recent statement attributed to the president sounds like something you’d hear from actor Alec Baldwin as he impersonates Trump on "Saturday Night Live," that’s because it’s a fake quote. 

"The doctors said they’ve never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body," reads the text over an image of Trump speaking. "They tested my DNA and it wasn’t DNA. It was USA."

A post sharing the image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

Searching for the quote on Google we only found two pages of results, none of them credible sources to support that Trump said this. 

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stated on January 22, 2020 in a Facebook post

Says a coronavirus patent expired just as there is a "sudden outbreak" and, despite "media fear-mongering," there is already a vaccine available.

Trump did appear triumphant after he left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he had been receiving treatment for COVID-19, removing his mask as he stood on the balcony after returning to the White House. He tweeted that he felt "better than I did 20 years ago!"

"Feeling really good!" he tweeted. "Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life." 

But there’s no evidence he said doctors found "USA" instead of DNA in his cells. Trump has not said "DNA" since Jan. 6, 2020, while chatting with Rush Limbaugh, according to Factba.se, which maintains an archive of Trump’s tweets and transcripts of his interviews and speeches.

We rate this post Pants on Fire.