One Year Later, People Are Still In Disbelief About Trump’s ‘Craziest And Most Surreal’ Press Conference

During his four years as president, Donald Trump held some bizarre press conferences. But he outdid himself one year ago today. On April 24, 2020, Trump suggested that the coronavirus could be treated by injecting disinfectant, like bleach, into the body.

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,” he said. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.” Trump later claimed he was being “sarcastic,” but there was a rise in accidental poisonings following his comments. Lysol even released a statement begging customers to not drink their poisonous products.

“For me, it was the craziest and most surreal moment I had ever witnessed in a presidential press conference,” ABC’s chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl told Politico about Trump’s medical musings, while a former staffer added, “A few of us actually tried to stop it in the West Wing hallway. I actually argued that President Trump wouldn’t have the time to absorb it and understand it. But I lost, and it went how it did.”

“Undoubtedly [it was] a seminal moment in presidential communications, and while it is easy to laugh it off, I hope it educates leaders and communicators for decades,” said former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “But this was the moment where we knew without any doubt that the government was in way over its head, and its ability to both respond effectively and educate Americans about what to do was not going to be anywhere close to meeting the moment.”

One year (and 570,000 deaths) later, people are still in disbelief about the briefing.

(Via Politico)