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'The Trump Vaccine': Kayleigh McEnany makes Covid vaccine all about POTUS, promises 40 million shots by year end

She credited the major feat to President Donald Trump’s background in the business world. 'It’s having a businessman as president. It’s the Trump vaccine,' she told a press pool

The White House has continued to take credit for the rapid development of coronavirus immunizations as Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters in a press briefing on Wednesday, December 2, that the “Trump vaccine" was a “tremendous achievement" by the administration in record time. 

She touted the fact that the US was going to have as many as 40 million vaccine doses ready by the year’s end, and credited the major feat to President Donald Trump’s background in the business world. “It’s having a businessman as president. It’s the Trump vaccine,” McEnany told the press pool. 

The comments come after the UK this week became the first Western nation to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with its regulator clearing Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s shot. The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program helped to accelerate vaccine development by several drug companies.

A number of people on Twitter reacted to the clip of McEnany branding it the "Trump vaccine." "Thank a lot Geraldo," one of them said, while another wrote, "She’s beginning to look more and more alien like as her thirst for power increases...those crazy eyes are on 11." The next tweeted, "For the Trump Virus!" One user commented, "49 days until she’s gone. Then we will have a return to truth and professionalism." One more noted, "Yep...NOT TAKING THAT."

Another remarked, "The Trump Vaccine was administered by 81 million people on November 3." One more user commented, "I think Pfizer may take some offense to that." A Twitter user said, "What's new here? Him taking credit for the hard work of others is par for the course." Another wrote, "Remember that vaccines are usually named after what they give protection against."

One more reacted with, "They better really hope that vaccine gets fully tested for safety if they’re calling it that." The next quipped, "That was both painful and hilarious to watch at the same time."

We previously reported that McEnany’s husband, Sean Gilmartin, showed up in the White House briefing room without a mask and declined to cover his face despite being asked to do so by a journalist.

Photographer Doug Mills of The New York Times initiated an exchange with Gilmartin during the 24-minute briefing where he “politely pointed out” to Gilmartin, a professional baseball pitcher, the rules that are being followed in the Oval Office’s press area amid the deadly pandemic. White House pool reporter Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade reportedly told, “a White House staffer who was with Gilmartin said incredulously, ‘Kayleigh’s husband?’”

The staffer and Gilmartin then exited the briefing room together as Mills “restated the mask rules and said it doesn’t matter who [Gilmartin] is”, Johnson recounted. Mills told Johnson that Gilmartin was maskless during the entire briefing and that he did not know he was the press secretary’s husband when he informed him about the mask rules.

According to the policies mandated by the White House Correspondents’ Association to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the requirements include that masks be worn in all shared White House press areas. WHCA President Zeke Miller told Politico that the organization (WHCA) “has repeatedly encouraged everyone in the press areas to wear masks at all [times], including with signage and frequent reminders that failing to do so puts themselves and others around them at greater risk”.