President Donald Trump has once again found himself on the receiving end of criticism after a recent press briefing on the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic. While he’s regularly drawn reactions from viewers over his handling of the situation, on April 2 he spelled out COVID-19, one letter at a time, when referring to the virus itself. Which obviously left some people questioning why that was done.
The briefings, which happen on a near-daily basis, have become a hotbed of the president’s candid, and seemingly inappropriate, remarks. Particularly given the massive amount of deaths that the virus has already brought to the U.S., which he has acknowledged could be in the hundreds of thousands before it’s contained. However, his offhand remarks about being “involved” with models to jokes about “the Deep State Department” haven’t sat well with much of the public. It’s even inspired some of them to rally behind a call for doctors-only press conferences, in hopes that those would reveal pertinent information that people could use.
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Johns Hopkins University has reported that there have been 368,079 confirmed cases, with 10,986 deaths and 19,828 recoveries as of Monday. Given that experts have pointed out that things are likely to get worse in the U.S., Trump’s handling of things from behind the podium didn’t go unnoticed on Twitter.
Trump: “C-O-V-I-D-19. You know what that is, right?”
— Melissa Blake (@melissablake) April 2, 2020
Does he know what that is? Because up until last month, he thought it was a Democratic hoax. Maybe replacing the pandemic response team with Jared Kushner wasn’t such a good idea? Just a thought… #TrumpPressBriefing
I just watched Trump read COVID-19 as “C-O-V-I-D-19” we’re all gonna die
— jan (@j13ohara) April 2, 2020
Trump has previously come under fire for referring to coronavirus as a “Chinese virus,” and had even made hasty edits to one of his speeches to reflect the use of the term.
Deadass just read C-O-V-I-D 19 like Tammy Wynette’s song D-I-V-O-R-C-E
— Stan Mannarino (@69696969k69) April 2, 2020
“I didn’t appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody,” Trump said in mid-March, defending his use of the term. “China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave this to them. That was false. And rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China. So, I think it’s a very accurate term.”
There’s an I-D-I-O-T in charge during C-O-V-I-D-19
— struggs (@atiredbetch) April 2, 2020
🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
On Friday, the administration also got dragged for having Jared Kushner, the son-in-law to the president, speak about the ongoing pandemic at the briefing.
Pretty sure someone spelled out C-O-V-I-D-19 on @realDonaldTrump notes as a trick to force him to call it that instead of a Chinese virus 😆
— Kali Moyer (@lovelymisskali) April 2, 2020
“What the president asks is that all of the recommendations we make be based on data,” Kushner said at the briefing. “He wanted us to be very rigorous, to make sure we were studying the data, collecting data. A lot of things in this country are happening very quickly, and we want to make sure that we’re trying to keep updating our models and making sure that we were making informed decisions and informed recommendations based on the data that we’re able to collect and put together.”
Did you see that side eye?
— Skippy the Magnificent🌊🇺🇸🌊 (@dnadot) April 2, 2020
“C-O-V-I-D-19…do you know it?” pic.twitter.com/ikwqK7xiGr
Donald Trump spells out COVID19 veeerrrry slowly: “I’ve allowed companies to start manufacturing ventilators to help patients with C-O-V-I-D-19. It’s become a very famous term. A world famous term.”
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 2, 2020
Trump himself has also refused to wear a facemask while out in public, despite the fact that the CDC is now officially recommending them to everyone who has to leave the house for essential trips, as it’s believed they may now help slow the spread of coronavirus.
C O V I D 19. Now we see why he was calling it the Chinese virus. He cannot even say it. He can only spell it. OMG!
— 2getherweRstrong (@njabbitscover) April 3, 2020
“C-O-V-I-D-19”
— Frankp (@CogitoErgoWtf) April 2, 2020
Every time Trump learns something new to him, but obvious to literally everyone else on the planet, he makes sure to let us know.
He always sounds like your grandfather’s grandfather, explaining that there are now “talking pictures”, and they’re called “movies”.
“Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I don’t know, somehow I just don’t see it for myself,” Trump said on Friday.
