Donald Trump has said and done even stupider and more dangerous things than telling people to ingest disinfectants to fight coronavirus. But this one is resonating in the form of an endless news cycle and endless social media discussion, because it’s just too fitting: of course Donald Trump would tell people to go out and drink Lysol.
Over the weekend, the New York Daily News reported that there had been a spike in the number of emergency calls involving disinfectants. Given the timing, it was pretty clear that this was a direct result of Donald Trump’s words, but there weren’t enough details to know precisely what was going on. Now that’s changed.
The Georgia Poison Center is now telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that two people did indeed ingest liquid disinfectants in the hope of protecting themselves from coronavirus. The newspaper notes that these were both mentally disturbed individuals to begin with – but that’s why you can’t have a President who says things like that. The most vulnerable people out there are going to believe it.
This comes even as “President Pine Sol” was trending across social media on Tuesday. This isn’t going away. Donald Trump finally stepped in it, in front of the TV cameras, in a way that precisely encapsulates everything that his detractors have been saying about him all along: he’s a dangerously deranged idiot. This disinfectant thing is going to continue resonating with undecided voters as the election cycle moves forward.
