As if the abysmal attendance at Trump’s Tulsa rally wasn’t bad enough, Trump loyalists were left to explain his comment about slowing down testing in response to increased cases of coronavirus. Their explanations only made the matter worse when they insisted Trump was joking when he made the comment.
Joking about over 120,00 deaths?! Are you kidding me!?
But wait. There’s more.
When asked about the “joke”, Trump immediately threw his supporters under the bus, stating “I don’t kid” when asked about his controversial comment.
So much for supporting your boss.
It should come as no surprise that Trump would make a comment, backtrack, and then go back to defend his original statement after his aides had scrambled to defend him. It has become a consistent part of his modus operandi.
Remember his comment about Charlottesville, when he asserted there were “very fine people on both sides”? Aides struggled to defend the outrageous claim while Trump retracted the statement, only to defend it days later.
Then there was the shocking statement that Trump was “the Chosen One”. It was a statement that should have outraged Christians, yet he has repeated the comment not in spite of, but because Evangelicals agree with him.
Trump has repeatedly stated that the impeachment process entitled him to run for a third term because impeachment deprived him of a full first term. Again, he claimed he was joking because it angered the media when he said it. It didn’t stop him from repeating it, to raucous cheers at his rallies.
And then there was his alleged coronavirus cure. Trump was quite serious when he suggested ingesting bleach or injecting household chemicals as a cure. This drew immediate backlash, and resulted in Trump stating he was being sarcastic when he made the comments .
So, it should come as no surprise when Trump made his testing comments at the recent rally. Yet, his staff took to the airwaves to defend him once again. They struggled to insist Trump was making a joke as interviewers demanded to know where was the humor in 120,000 deaths and millions unemployed.
Whatever Trump’s post-presidency plans are, I would suggest he not choose stand-up comedy.