News
Moya Lothian-McLean
May 29, 2020
Early on in the pandemic, Donald Trump let everyone know that while WHO guidance stressed wearing a mask when out and about, to avoid virus spread, he would not be following that particular advice.
“I just don’t want to wear one,” he said in April. “just don't want to be doing... somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk. I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens... I don't see it for myself”.
Basically he thinks the potentially life-saving protective device doesn’t suit his aesthetic.
Trump has also taken to ridiculing anyone who does wear a mask, particularly members of the press and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
This week he mocked a Reuters reporter for wearing a mask, calling him “politically correct” after the journalist asked why he criticised Biden for wearing a mask.
Now even Trump’s election campaign ads have jumped on board, using Biden’s mask to imply that the politician is weak.
Facebook ads, seemingly belonging to the Trump 2020 election campaign, show Biden and Trump side by side.
Trump – who is depicted as noticeably larger than Biden – stands in front of a US flag, mask free.
Biden – who has been nicknamed ‘Sleepy Joe’ by Trump – is backed by the Chinese flag and is wearing a mask.
Another ad shows a photoshopped image of Biden wearing a comedy mask.
The ads, which are of questionable design quality, are reportedly funded by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint federal fundraising initiative from the official Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Biden has responded to Trump’s taunts about his mask by calling the president an “absolute fool”.
“He’s a fool,” Biden said on Wednesday, in an interview with CNN.
An absolute fool to talk that way. Every doc in the world is saying you should wear a mask when you’re in a crowd. Especially when you know you’re going to be in a position where you’re going to inadvertently get closer than 12ft to somebody.
This macho stuff, for a guy – I shouldn't get going, but it just, it costs people's lives. It's costing people's lives. We’re almost 100,000 dead.
When asked what wearing a mask projects, Biden replied:
Leadership. It presents and projects leadership.
Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine.
Mask on.
The Conversation (0)
x