The ‘sarcasm’ on the part of the President of the United States of America was awfully misplaced. Despite the clarification after 24 hours that he had spoken with tongue firmly in cheek, Donald Trump has cut a sorry figure with his suggestion to ‘inject disinfectants’ to treat the coronavirus that has claimed more than 50,000 lives and nearly a million afflictions ~ and still counting ~ in the United States alone.
His suggestion was as unorthodox as it was direly reckless on the part of a President who has been at sixes and sevens while trying to address the scourge. His prescription on disinfectants would have been hilarious were it not for the profound implications.
The clarification that his prescription was ‘sarcastic’ was at best an afterthought, at worst a strained attempt to wriggle out of a situation that has been much too embarrassing for the White House. Small wonder the remarks have been roundly condemned across the country. The flippancy reflects poorly on the office that he holds, and most particularly in an election year.
The disbelief has been widespread in the wake of the catastrophe. He has attempted to retract after medical experts rejected his ‘disinfectant injection’ theory. Indeed, his grasp over the vocabulary has been called into question not the least because the dictionary has defined the word as “a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain”.
It has been an inhumane expression of a sickening sense of humour. The thought of the US President baiting journalists at the White House briefing to see “how they would react” in a time of unprecedented crisis is unsettling. On closer reflection, it is not new, however. Trump has mastered the art of saying one thing and retracting or changing his statement when public opinion doesn’t concur.
It bears recall that he had initially compared coronavirus to the seasonal flu. And two weeks later, he suggested that it was other people who were confused. And then the corrigendum as it were ~ “But it is not the flu. It is vicious.” Altogether, his occasional response has been breathtaking in its vacuity even it was meant to be an expression of sarcasm.
And then there were the six weeks when he downplayed the virus, only to turn around at the end of it and say he spotted the pandemic coming before anyone else did. This week, he backtracked after a report showed an anti-malaria drug he had projected as a “gamechanger” could lead to a higher death rate.
Maybe he was just being sarcastic. Or maybe, he should listen to experts for once. The world expects better from the President of the United States of America, the nation that has been worst affected by Covid- 19. Coronavirus affords no scope for a facile expression of puerile humour.