
On Monday night, Donald Trump had one of his routine Twitter meltdowns where he took aim at Dr Anthony Fauci and shared a video that claimed there was a cure for coronavirus.
Trump posted and shared more than 60 tweets on Monday most of which were about Joe Biden, the protests in Portland and people showing support for him but his attention soon turned to the pandemic, where the president began to share some very questionable content.
The president began by sharing statistics about the decline in cases in states such as Arizona and Texas.
Arizona shows a directionally nice decline in new cases per 100,000 people and a drop in ICU space used by COVID. T… https://t.co/yINCK96q5G— Brian Wesbury (@Brian Wesbury) 1595851161
Texas has a decline in new cases as well, and it’s hospital ICUs are at 87% of capacity. Like Florida, things look… https://t.co/41gC7Mq02A— Brian Wesbury (@Brian Wesbury) 1595851396
Trump then took a brief break from Twitter to actually speak at a coronavirus press briefing where he claimed, without irony, that there are some 'very, very infected countries outside of the US' despite the US having the most cases in the world.
Pres. Trump: “You have some very, very highly infected countries outside of our borders.” https://t.co/cjS2yb68r2— The Recount (@The Recount) 1595886416
Upon returning to the website, Trump began talking about his favourite cure for coronavirus, the controversial Malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is said to have harmful side effects. Trump retweeted several posts and stories championing the drug and its benefits.
#Hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100,000 lives if used for COVID-19: Yale epidemiology professor https://t.co/3gHxNFdCwF #FoxNews— Tom Fitton (@Tom Fitton) 1595515981
"As a prof of epidemiology I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed papers. I'm fighting for a treatment the data sup… https://t.co/bi1STKdYlw— John Ruddick 🌸 (@John Ruddick 🌸) 1595760493
One tweet that Trump posted in this flurry was deleted and featured a Turning Point USA video (a pro-Trump student activist group) as well as a Breitbart video, which showed Dr. Stella Immanuel claiming that hydroxychloroquine was an effective way to treat coronavirus. Trump shared two versions of this speech, both of which were deleted by Twitter.
This press conference of doctors had 14 million views on Facebook today. FB took it down shortly after a NYTimes re… https://t.co/bMlGgw6cp0— Robby Starbuck (@Robby Starbuck) 1595904908
Videos Trump shared are now no longer available. https://t.co/VAdfUXriEK— Oliver Darcy (@Oliver Darcy) 1595909052
Trump then retweeted a post from an account called War Room: Pandemic, which is a radio show hosted by his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, which said that Fauci, who is part of Trump's Covid-19 task force, had 'misled the American public' by dismissing hydroxychloroquine.
Two other tweets that Trump shared were also deleted by Twitter both showing support for hydroxychloroquine, as per the Trump Twitter Archive.
Picture: Trump Twitter Archive/ Screengrab
The president then got completely distracted and started to retweet himself as well as promoting his son's upcoming book about Joe Biden.
My new book is now available for pre-orders! LIBERAL PRIVILEGE! Sleepy Joe wont like this one... but lets be honest… https://t.co/1OovqNdSG9— Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.) 1595803380
Trump's final retweet from the aforementioned Stella Immanuel which said "Covid has cure. America wake up."
President retweeted the words "Covid has cure. America wake up.” And his amplification of that message was removed… https://t.co/sO4NT7XB4s— Jennifer Jacobs (@Jennifer Jacobs) 1595912885
Immanuel's video was originally posted on Facebook on Monday and soon racked up more than 14 million views before it was removed for sharing misinformation, which was the same reason Twitter deleted the video. A spokesperson from Twitter told CNN "We're taking action in line with our Covid misinfo policy" while a spokesperson from Facebook added:
We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19. [Facebook] is showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.
Studies have found that the malaria drug does nothing to treat coronavirus and those that take it have a higher risk of death than those that do not take the drug. Trump has been widely criticised for his efforts to stop the pandemic, with the US currently topping the charts worldwide for both confirmed cases and the number of deaths.