Trump says his comments blocked by Facebook were ‘perfect’

US President Donald Trump insists that his comment about children being nearly immune to the coronavirus — which Facebook and Twitter blocked for being false — was “perfect.”

It was “a perfect statement, a statement about youth,” Trump tells conservative radio host Geraldo Rivera.

The remark refers to the unprecedented decision by Facebook last night to take down a clip from the president’s account for violating its content rules on misinformation. Twitter briefly blocked Trump’s official campaign account over a tweet containing the same video.

In the video — a clip from an interview Trump did with Fox News — the president claims that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19.

Children are not immune to catching the novel coronavirus, although they are much less likely to become seriously ill, and deaths are extremely rare.

Trump is using his claim to back up a push to get schools fully open again in September and move the country back to normality before the November 3 presidential election.

“Every doctor’s saying what I’m saying. Not every doctor, I guess. There’ll be some that won’t,” he tells Rivera.

Trump relies heavily on Twitter and Facebook, where he has huge followings, but complains of censorship and says that “the internet is totally controlled by a few people.”

“If you happen to be on the right, if you’re a Republican or a conservative Republican, what they’re doing to people is incredible,” he says.

— AFP