Trump boasts about being 'number one on Facebook' during coronavirus press briefing, gets slammed
Many were reportedly left scratching their heads at the White House coronavirus briefing on April 1 when President Donald Trump appeared to boast about his social media engagement stats.
The POTUS was criticized for his remarks, which came at a time when the entire world is reeling under the threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic, HollywoodLife reports.
“Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I just found out I’m number one on Facebook,” Trump boasted at the press conference on April 1. “I thought that was very nice. For whatever it means, it represents something,” he added while answering a question about his tweets lambasting Iran.
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Twitterati subsequently flooded the platform expressing outrage at his comments.
“Yes, because a president being popular on social media is definitely what a president should be thinking about right now. With Trump, it’s always about Trump. The most self-serving, narcissistic person I’ve ever witnessed,” one tweeted.
“What is he, 5 years old? I’m number one on Facebook! He’s a grown man. He needs to focus on job performance, not on Facebook rankings. Right now his job performance is a failure. He’s a failure as a father, spouse, businessman, friend, and president,” another chimed in.
This comes after the president appeared to diss Prince Harry and Meghan Markle over the weekend after reports speculated whether America would have to pay for their security.
“It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the US however, the US will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!” he tweeted, also adding that he is “a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom.”
In response, the former senior royals shot back with a statement of their own on March 29. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the US government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made,” they said.
The following day, the POTUS took an opportunity to reaffirm to the American public that his hair is indeed real. The former real estate mogul's orange coiffure began blowing in the wind as he spoke about the coronavirus in the White House’s Rose Garden. “My hair’s blowing around and it’s mine,” he quipped to the reporters present.
In a rare bipartisan display on April 1, Trump said he would love to hear the viewpoints of Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden on fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The president expressed his willingness to speak to the Democrat at the White House coronavirus briefing after Biden’s campaign said earlier that the candidate was eager to talk to the chief executive. "Sure. Oh absolutely, I'd love to speak to him," he said, adding, "If he'd like to call, I'd absolutely take his call."
In the US, there have been over 215,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and over 5,100 people have died after contracting the virus as of April 2 morning.