Trump was booed last week when he said he got the booster and he insisted that he should be given credit for the vaccines. Later he was interviewed by Candace Owens and he forcefully endorsed the vaccines as well. As we know, he’s wanted to take credit for saving the world because he’s a very stable genius and all, but he backed himself into a corner by downplaying the virus and pushing snake oil cures. Something persuaded him that he should be more aggressive in defending his great scientific prowess.
But I’ll be surprised if we hear any more about this:
As the president’s new, unabashed booster endorsement rippled out across right-wing social media, it was met with an combustible mix of anger, confusion, contorted excuses, and denial so pure it’s as if the former president had never uttered a word.
For a sign of just how severely Trump wrong-footed himself with his base by endorsing boosters, look no further than the editorial cartoonist Ben Garrison. The doodler’s devotion to the 45th president has been slavish, but Garrison’s opposition to the vaccine has also been stalwart. His latest cartoon opus shows Trump riding aboard on the “Big Pharma Vaccine Bandwagon” as he’s booed by the MAGA-hatted masses.
On the social media app Telegram, Ron Watkins — whom many believe role-played “Q” in the QAnon conspiracy that held up Trump as America’s heaven-sent savior in the battle against satanic Democrats — sent out a message on the day of Trump’s comments. Watkins blasted “the insidious global campaign to use poisonous injections to ‘save’ every living man woman, woman [and] child.” Watkins didn’t respond to Trump directly, but later urged the “VF” (or Vaccine Free community) to “stand strong,” “never fear,” and “never comply.” Two days later, Watkins was back to unvarnished anti-vax hysteria blasting jabs and boosters as “Subscription Suicide Shots.”
General Michael Flynn, the Trump’s pardoned former national security adviser, was on Telegram on the day before the former president’s remarks opining that: “The vaccine doesn’t appear to work to prevent this covid madness, it appears to be causing it.” Flynn seemed to ignore Trump’s booster endorsement entirely. By the next day he’d posted a link to “news” item alleging Bill Gates and Tony Fauci had been “charged with genocide” in a filing before the International Criminal Court.
Larry Cook — a top anti-vaxxer who once rivaled Robert Kennedy Jr. in his online reach before getting kicked off Facebook — runs the “Stop Mandatory Vaccination” online community. (Rolling Stone profiled Cook as part of this examination of the crossover between the anti-vax and Q Communities). A QAnon adherent and longtime Trump booster, Cook describes the vaccines as “experimental poisons.” He rails on his “Covid-19 Refusers” site that the “Deep State” seeks to “destroy our children through vaccination” as part of an effort to “usher in a one world government and police state for total Luciferian domination of every Child of God.” He took no notice of Trump’s vaccine endorsement — and instead used Telegram to promote a “powerful zeolite detox” spray that’s sold through his website.
While MAGA and anti-vax leaders tried to excuse, dismiss or ignore the former president’s booster boosting, some in the rank-and-file of the far-right movement weren’t ready to forgive and forget, instead training their fire directly at the 45th president.
A message posted to a popular Telegram channel dedicated to “controversial media” and “uncensored views” read: “How quickly ‘Trumpers’ and liberal-conservatives forget that this entire COVID debacle, including vaccines and mass vaccination, was initiated and promoted under Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s watch.”
The post continued by arguing that Trump and the GOP don’t occupy the “moral high ground” on Covid and should not be trusted anymore than Biden and the Democrats: “Democrats are corrupt. Republicans are corrupt,” the post reads. “If you’re still on that merry-go-round then time to wake up and join us over here where TRUTH and FREEDOM is prioritised[sic] over party politics.”
This sentiment was echoed by InfoWars host Alex Jones who used his platform to blast Trump for abandoning the fight of the anti-vaxxers. “Hell, we’re out here fighting Bill Gates and Fauci and Biden,” Jones said with disbelief: “And now we’ve got Trump on their team!”
I very much doubt that Trump will rock that boat much more. He’s obviously insecure anyway about January 6th and the fact that he’s not getting the non-stop attention he’s used to. I don’t think he’ll push this.
Having said that, it would be good if he did. I don’t think many refusniks will change their minds but even a few is better than none.
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