16 Internet Responses to Trump Disinfectant Recommendation

Posted in:

“Disinfectant Donnie” Now Claims “Sarcasm”

April 24th, 2020 – On Thursday evening, President Trump spent a good portion of his Coronavirus press briefing/campaign rally musing over whether it would be possible for disinfectants and UV light to be injected into the human body to kill the virus. By Friday morning, jokes calling out the novel idea had taken over Twitter.

“Lysol,” “#InjectDisinfectant,” “#DontDrinkBleach,” and “disinfectant” were the top four trends on Twitter with “TrumpIsNotADoctor,” “Tide Pods,” “#DisinfectantDonnie,” and “#25thAmendmentNow” also making the rounds.

For those who missed the brainstorming session, Trump suggested the potential disinfectant treatment after senior Department of Homeland Security official Bill Bryan displayed poster boards highlighting various experiments as well as best practices for Americans to use.

…WHAT pic.twitter.com/CCOYIsfSm7
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) April 23, 2020

Trump defends sunlight as a potential treatment (???) and points to his head: “I’m not a doctor but I’m like a person that has a good… you know what.” https://t.co/CYCFGGek5N pic.twitter.com/QvpQGXV9QA
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) April 23, 2020

While Lysol, medical professionals, and most members of Congress have put out statements urging people not to inject disinfectants into their body, other people have taken the president’s suggestion and satired their way to a cure.

I know, since babies can’t get it, has anybody looked into, maybe, if we eat babies, maybe we won’t get sick? I think that’s a very promising idea, I’m hearing great things, so maybe check that out, I don’t know, I’m not a doctor, but we will be proceeding with baby eating.
— There Will Be Bread (@supermills) April 24, 2020

But… pic.twitter.com/R82Rfw504v
— @🏡 with q324: Professional Comic Illustrator (@MemphisQuinn) April 24, 2020

Don’t worry, everybody! Ivanka is already sciencing the Lysol into hypodermic needles, so help is on the way! #InjectDisinfectant #TidePodPresident pic.twitter.com/qQfjGgGEtX
— Matt Johnson (@HotPockets4All) April 24, 2020

“I was just thinking about how they can turn Fred Flinstone into vitamin gummies in the factory places soooo I think it could be interesting to try and make Dr Fauci into a yummy, digestible virus killer. Who knows? Probably worth a try. We can do that, yes? Great.” https://t.co/5hQt2B8bUA
— Melissa Jordan (@mjjordan7) April 24, 2020

pic.twitter.com/GBBXsucho2
— Jonathan Ruggiero 📽 (@jruggiero86) April 24, 2020

Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my morning cup of bleach.
— A Mancino-Williams (@Manda_like_wine) April 24, 2020

I like presidents who don’t prompt a response from Lysol to not drink their disinfectants.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 24, 2020

Hi friends. Please do not inject yourselves with or consume #disinfectant — as the president suggested.
That’s all. #injectingdisinfectant #TrumpIsNotADoctor pic.twitter.com/zV0bTilXUr
— BRINDA (@BIGBRINDA) April 24, 2020

I see a lot of you urging people not to drink bleach. But worth some introspection: NONE of you cared about this issue or even talked about it until Trump brought it up. And then all of sudden you hate the idea?
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) April 24, 2020

If injecting disinfectant cures the coronavirus, imagine what it does for windmill cancer!!
— Brian O’Sullivan (@osullivanauthor) April 24, 2020

#sacrifices Thanks for sharing. #trumpandemic #TrumpIsNotADoctor #clorox #cloroxdon #cloroxchallenge #DoctorDoNothingDonald @AprilDRyan @co_rapunzel4 @laloalcaraz @MaggieJordanACN @Tim_Matheson pic.twitter.com/f7VFLieomX
— Ed Hall (@halltoons) April 24, 2020

The Onion wrote this last month https://t.co/g9wZqzU813
— rebkah howard (@pink_funk) April 24, 2020

How to medical pic.twitter.com/0EDqJcy38p
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) April 24, 2020

Like most Trump fumbles, his staff and supporters scrambled to defend and explain what he actually meant; putting blame on the media and liberals for taking his words out of context. Then, right on time, President Trump cripples their talking points by saying he was just joking about the whole thing.

Breitbart quickly cobbled together a “fact check” article claiming Trump didn’t propose injecting people with disinfectant. Joel B. Pollak quotes the president as saying “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it [the virus] out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning, cause you see it gets in the lungs.” The conservative writer then followed up by saying “At no time did Trump actually propose injecting patients with disinfectant.”

The administration’s latest press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, also doubled down on the claim that Trump was taken out of context. This afternoon, however, the president put his own spin on the medical musing saying he was simply being “sarcastic.”

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

Told he was, in fact, asking experts to look into injecting disinfectants, Trump says, “No. No no no no. To look into whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands – but whether or not sun can help us.” In fact, he asked them to look into injecting disinfectant too. pic.twitter.com/1R42lApWYY
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 24, 2020