U.S. President Donald Trump became the subject of widespread criticism after suggesting slowing down COVID-19 testing to avoid bad statistics during his Tulsa rally on Saturday.

However, the White House defended the president's statement, claiming it was just a joke.

On Sunday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Trump's comments were made in jest, telling CNN's Jake Tapper it was "tongue in cheek."

Chad Wolf, secretary of homeland security, said the President's statement was due to frustration over media coverage, which he claimed focused in increasing the number of cases, instead of the advanced testing.

USA Today reported that Trump's comment at the rally drew reactions from Democrats, who highlighted a lack of access to testing across the nation.

Campaign Rally

During his campaign rally in Oklahoma, the president claimed the United States had tested over 25 million people, a number he believes to be 20 million people more than other countries.

However, he noted that aggressive testing leads to more discovered cases.

"So I said to my people, slow the testing down please," Trump said during the rally.

The President's rally was the first of many planned for his re-election campaign.

Despite concerns from local health officials over a potential spread of the virus, Trump pushed forward with the rally, where most attendees refused to wear face masks.

Brad Parscale, the campaign manager, initially claimed hundreds of thousands of people applied for tickets to the event.

However, the Saturday rally only attracted a sparse crowd.

Also read: Trump's Election Rally Sees Thousands of Empty Seats and New COVID-19 Infections as Cases Pass 10,000

According to the Tulsa fire department, 6,200 attended the rally. The Trump campaign said they recorded 12,000.

The sparse crowd forced the campaign organizers to cancel the President and the Vice President's speeches at an "overflow" stage outside the arena.

The "underwhelming" event infuriated the president who was allegedly fuming before leaving Washington after his aides told news media that six of his campaign staffers in Tulsa tested positive for the virus.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump's daughter and son-in-law, were also said to be furious at Parscale, who promised a vast crowd.

In a statement, Parscale accused the media of warning people away from the rally, using the COVID-19 pandemic and protesters.

He also claimed that recent images showing American cities in flames also impacted the rally's attendance, The Guardian reported.

He appeared to threaten to rescind the accreditation of media professionals who were critical of the president's campaign, claiming they "now celebrate the fear they helped create."

A report by CNN claimed many applicants for tickets to the rally was inflated by K-pop fans and TikTok users.

They registered online for the free event as part of a coordinated effort to leave hundreds of the arena's 19,000 seats empty.

The scheme, which was reported by the New York Times, stemmed from Trump's campaign tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets.

K-pop fan accounts and TikTok users began sharing the information to their millions of followers and asked viewers to do the same and then not show up.

The tweets and TikTok videos were deleted after 24 hours to keep the content from spreading into the mainstream internet.

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