Trump Released A ‘Hilariously Pathetic’ (And, Of Course, Racist) Statement Trying To Claim Credit For The Vaccines

As you may have noticed, it’s been a while since Donald Trump was on Twitter. It’s been a lot quieter since the former president was permanently banned, with a lot less need to worry that the most powerful person in the world could cause real damage with simply a few rage tweets. But he’s not entirely gone: Every great now and then he fires off what looks like a formal fax and someone posts it somewhere online, in the hopes that it will find its way onto twitter.com. And on Wednesday, such an event took place.

Like previous post-Twitter Trump missives, it was written on presidential letterhead, billing itself faux-triumphantly as a “statement” from the “45th president.” (Nowhere does it imply there’s now a 46th.) And this time he had something to say about the vaccines that are currently being rolled out en masse after a clumsy start under his watch. Also, there was some racism.

“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all,” it reads. It concludes with a repeat of the words, “I hope everyone remembers!” (in case anyone forgot them).

It’s a classic Trump statement: the wounded narcissism, the unnecessary but very pronounced bigotry, the random capitalizations, the random quotation marks, the ridiculous boasts that he then increases to make himself feel better, the pointless repetition.

Thing was, people weren’t shaken to see him back in the public eye, such as he is. People simply found it pathetic.

Some thought he seemed like a man on a street corner.

Or that he had real father-in-law energy.

Some were annoyed that he’s found a way to circumvent the Twitter ban.

In fact, the full statement is even the size of a tweet.

But on weird letterhead.

Since he was boasting about his role in combating the pandemic — a truly bizarre thing to do, given the last year — some thought it was only fair to remind him of statements he made at the start of it.

And others pointed out the real reason it’s bizarre for him to claim credit for the vaccines: The people who actually listen to him aren’t going to take it.