US President Donald Trump just tested positive for coronavirus and Twitter has already started making memes about the moment he called it a “hoax” | Image Credit: Reuters / Twitter
With Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, the internet can’t help but remember the moment he called it a hoax. But did he really say it?
- News18.com
- Last update: October 2, 2020 2:24 PM IST
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On Friday, the world woke up to shocking news. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the first lady, Melania Trump, tested positive for coronavirus.
The news complicates Trump’s scheduled public appearances in the crucial final weeks of the 2020 presidential election campaign. The positive test reports came just hours after the White House announced that senior adviser Hope Hicks contracted the virus after travel with the president several times this week.
Trump took to Twitter to announce the news, adding that he and Melania had instantly entered quarantine and were currently in the process of recovery.
While the news sparked a host of good wishes and prayers on social media, many couldn’t help but recall the time Trump had gone viral for claiming the coronavirus was a hoax. While some were sarcastic, others reproached him for calling the coronavirus a “hoax” in early September and his general attitude of downplaying the pandemic and the importance of wearing masks.
My grandmother died of Covid19 last month. We never got to have a funeral for her. Much of this could have been avoided with proper leadership. The president called it a hoax for months knowing it wasn’t. WEAR A MASK.
– Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) October 2, 2020
I hope Trump and his wife recover. I also have extreme resentment and anger towards a man who stood idly by like all of us including myself, we lost friends and loved ones as he insisted 1) it was a hoax 2) it would magically disappear and 3) that the people who used masks were dumb.
– Josh Gad (@joshgad) October 2, 2020
However, others made memes. Within hours, there were thousands of tweets about the president’s “hoax” comment under the hashtag #TrumpHasCovid.
The fact that Trump went from calling COVID-19 a Democratic hoax to knowing the dangers in private and undermining it publicly anyway, to recklessly holding rallies to mocking Biden for wearing a mask to getting COVID-19 is delicious karma.
– ™ ️Marcus (@TheMisterMarcus) October 2, 2020
But did Trump really call the coronavirus a hoax?
Well not exactly.
While the POTUS has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the pandemic by stating that it will disappear in hot weather and even refused to wear masks, it never said the words “the coronavirus is a hoax.” According to a fact check by the Associated Press, the rumor started after Democratic candidate Joe Biden tweeted a cleverly manipulated video of Trump titled “Trump in Public: ‘Deception’. Trump in Private: ‘Killer.'”
In the video, which shows Trump at the February 28 campaign rally in South Carolina, he makes him say the words: “The coronavirus, and this is your new hoax.”
READ: Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus has only one lesson: wear a mask
Actually, this is not what he said.
The prosecution and selective video editing are misleading. In the rally featured in the video, Trump actually said the phrases “the coronavirus” and “this is his new hoax” at separate points. Although his meaning is difficult to discern, the broader context of his words shows that he was criticizing Democrats for their denunciations of his administration’s response to the coronavirus.
“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” he said. “Do you know well? Coronavirus. They are politicizing it.” She briefly addressed the subject of the messy Democratic primaries in Iowa, then the Russia investigation before returning to the pandemic. “They tried the deception of impeachment. … And this is her new deception. “
When asked at a press conference the next day to clarify his comments, Trump made it clear that he was not referring to the coronavirus itself as a hoax.
“No no no.” he said. ”’Hoax’ refers to the action they take to try to blame someone because we have done a good job. The deception is in them, no, I am not talking about what is happening here. I’m talking about what they are doing. That is the deception. “
He continued: “It certainly doesn’t mean this. How could anyone refer to this? This is very serious. “
The video’s reference to “Trump in private” calling the virus a “killer” is also misrepresented, as it was not said in private. It emerged from his April interview with author and journalist Bob Woodward, whose new book “Rage” contains Trump’s acknowledgment that he was downplaying the threat of the virus in public, to avoid panic.
Spreading wrong information
But it was wrong for Biden to suggest, as the video does, that Trump insisted the virus was a hoax before finally acknowledging the perpetrator in April that it was deadly and serious.
That said, Trump has resorted to spreading misinformation about the virus on numerous occasions. ‘Miracle Cure’ to ‘Plandemic’, Trump has been the world’s largest driver of misinformation about COVID, a Cornell University study recently discovered.
Earlier, Trump had said that the coronavirus would simply “go away” without a vaccine. He also said that it will go away much faster because the United States is only three to four weeks away from developing a vaccine.
“We are very close to having a vaccine. We are just weeks away from getting it, you know, it could be three or four weeks,” he said.
Here’s my take on deception or not: I think the reason Trump contracted a contagious virus is because he and the people around him did not consistently take the preventive measures recommended by science.
– Joseph Scrimshaw (@JosephScrimshaw) October 2, 2020
Trump, 74, was last seen by journalists returning to the White House Thursday night and appeared to be in good health.
(With AP inputs)
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