Experts, including those within his own administration, immediately warned against taking such a path.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning,” Trump said. “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.”
Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, first defended Trump’s “natural question” about the use of light to treat the disease.
But he also warned against using disinfectant.
“I certainly wouldn’t recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant,” he said on CNN.
Trump’s comments caused terms such as #Lysol, #Clorox and #TidePods, among others, to trend on Twitter as users of the social network reacted in disbelief:
First, it was taking untested malaria drugs for coronavirus. Now it’s eating moonbeams. What’s next? Incantations? Sticking a screw driver in the wall socket while standing in a bucket of water? Cherry bubblegum? Eye of newt?
Enough with this king of the stupid people. https://t.co/Ddlfv36OOu
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 23, 2020
Hello Melania! While you stay home to keep yourself & others healthy, can keep your husband occupied with puzzles & other activities so he won’t keep telling people to take deadly untested drugs or to try injecting themselves with disinfectant? #BeBetter#IncompetenceKills https://t.co/CNOEjdJ1Qw
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) April 23, 2020
A week ago I asked whether it was responsible to carry Trump’s nightly stream of consciousness on live TV.
Today, he suggested drinking or injecting disinfectants or “sunlight” to kill the virus.
So I will ask again: What value is there to this spectacle? https://t.co/S1ZgRhumxU
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 24, 2020
Im sorry, did he just suggest injecting disinfectant into our lungs? I guess Clorox is the new Kool aid for the 24% who still think tiny hands is their savior. https://t.co/j9cPetU84w
— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) April 23, 2020
Wait. Now we’re SUPPOSED to eat the Tide Pods?
— Elizabeth Hackett (@LizHackett) April 23, 2020
Since it apparently no longer goes without saying: Listen to doctors and don’t drink bleach, don’t inject bleach, don’t do anything with bleach other than using it for its specific uses for cleaning while following all safety precautions. https://t.co/rAsbgFnS9K
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) April 24, 2020
Please don’t eat tide pods or inject yourself with any kind of disinfectant.
If you do need help with #COVID19 issues, we have lots of resources at https://t.co/C4x8jjWL0x
Just don’t make a bad situation worse.
— WA Emergency Management (@waEMD) April 23, 2020
Fresh off of touting the failed hydroxychloroquine treatment, Trump is now promoting injecting coronavirus patients with disinfectant to kill the virus.
Can’t see this backfiring at all. pic.twitter.com/Uq08VsFd5Q
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 23, 2020
By all means though give the most powerful crazy man in the world all the airtime he craves to workshop his science theories.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 24, 2020
The chances that @realDonaldTrump has an idea to cure #Covid_19 that works better than those of the best & brightest doctors & scientists: 0%.
The chances that Trump causes one of his supporters to harm himself/herself: higher than 0%.
Do not inject yourself with disinfectant. https://t.co/mkCWt6ows0
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 23, 2020
I find it interesting that the president thinks sunlight is powerful enough to cure #coronavirus but not strong enough to power an appliance.
— Christopher Moloney (@Moloknee) April 24, 2020
Today he talked about looking into injecting people with a disinfectant, and using the sun to cure people of the disease.
You ever wonder what it would look & sound like if an ill-behaved three year old child was running the country? Watch today’s entire briefing. https://t.co/mIksuDGfjE
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) April 23, 2020
Gonna go injest some sunlight while it’s still sunny and before I eaten too much dinner!!!! Should I eat the sunscreen first? Or does that matter?? I’m new to this!!
— 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐨 (@adamshapiro) April 24, 2020
What if we shrunk a doctor down to the size of an ant and the doctor went inside the body to fight the virus?
The invisible enemy wouldn’t be so invisible any more https://t.co/tIclJUibjO
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) April 23, 2020
If the president’s musing about how his constituents might ingest or inject household cleaning chemicals doesn’t prompt tv news executives to re-evaluate the propriety of instantly amplifying his every word live, nothing will.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 24, 2020
The fact that no stood up and shouted “WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT? GET OFF THE PODIUM!” at this babbling ignoramus as thousands died in ICUs will puzzle future historians – if there are any. https://t.co/XVZknd9ngB
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) April 23, 2020
Missed this episode of the World’s Most Madcap Reality Show today. Are we now going to have to issue warnings to people not to inject Lysol into their bodies? And will approximately 40 percent of Americans call such warnings “fake news” because their president says differently? https://t.co/QoPyTyDI3Q
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 24, 2020
Dear @realDonaldTrump I’ve eaten 7 tide pods and my wife is sticking her head in the oven and neither of us feels any better yet PLEASE EXPLAIN??
— Seth Grahame-Smith (@sethgs) April 23, 2020
Things you should never ingest:
– Disinfectant
– Hand sanitizer
– Rubbing alcohol
– Isopropyl alcohol
– Clorox
– Lysol
– Tide PodsThings you literally cannot ingest:
– Sunlight
People who should not be president:
– Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/wUrsRvYdnE
— Satan (@RealS8nn) April 24, 2020
A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus
