Getty Donald Trump listens to a speaker during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus.
While Monday’s daily White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing was originally canceled and then rescheduled, President Donald Trump kept his appointment to hold a special presser with industry executives on the country’s COVID-19 response.
Just before the afternoon meeting kicked off, the camera live-streaming the presser in the White House Cabinet Room zoomed in on Trump, who appeared to whisper, “I love everybody.”
A debate sparked on Twitter about whether he said, “I love everybody” or was slurring his words while saying, “Hello, everybody.” Vox reporter Aaron Rupar shared the video clip online and tweeted that this was “a hot mic moment” and that Trump didn’t take any questions during this briefing.
The video quickly went viral on Twitter, with numerous users online wondering if the president was high or medicated. One person tweeted, “I wish I had Trump’s ‘I love everybody’ drugs.” Another person wrote, “Donald Trump high as a kite (look at his eyes!) muttering “I love everybody” as meeting is set to start. That boy ain’t right.”
Trump’s meeting with industry executives was live-streamed on Facebook and did not air on multiple news networks like his previous White House briefings.
Bloomberg’s White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs tweeted about who joined Trump for Monday’s industry meeting, which included representatives from Rite-Aid, Walmart, CVS, Quest Diagnostics, Thermo Fisher, LabCorp and more.
Monday’s Coronavirus Task Force Press Briefing Was Initially Canceled Following Trump’s Disinfectant Injection Controversy
The White House announced on Sunday that there would be no daily White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting with the press on Monday. However, that decision was flipped by Monday afternoon.
According to CNN, “A White House aide said plans were being made for a 5 p.m. ET statement by the President in the Rose Garden. He is expected to emerge after meeting with retail executives and would likely be joined by them, though it is up to the President if he will take questions from reporters.”
The president received backlash following his comments during Thursday’s briefing, and there were no briefings held on Saturday or Sunday. The initial cancelation for Monday led many to believe these updates from the president would cease to be a daily occurrence.
Trump announced last week, “So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it?”
He continued, “[What if] you brought the light inside the body, in which you can do, either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too? Sounds interesting. Right and then I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection inside or almost a cleaning. As you know it gets inside the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”
On Friday, Trump appeared to be upset his words were taken literally. He said, “I was asking a sarcastic, and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters.”
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