Trump slammed for his rambling coronavirus pressers post Queen's calm speech: 'She doesn’t mention her ratings'
After a rare address to the nation by Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast around the world on Sunday, April 5, many people in the United States took to Twitter to slam Donald Trump, contrasting the monarch's speech with the president's almost-daily coronavirus press briefings from the White House.
Queen Elizabeth II, 93, delivered the speech from Windsor Castle, where she is self-isolating with her husband, Prince Philip, 98.
"While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again," she said in the brief speech.
She drew from her own experience of the "painful sense of separation from their loved ones" that child evacuees felt during the Second World War. "Now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do," she said.
The British monarch stressed the importance of self-discipline, adding that she hoped that in the future everyone would "be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge".
She also said that by staying at home the masses were "helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones".
"Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," she added.
It is only the fifth time the monarch has addressed the nation thus in her 68-year reign. According to BBC, the Queen could have chosen to play it safe and only stressed on unity and given thanks as it would have sufficed. But instead, in theese troubled times where hundreds of her subjects are either infected or dying from the deadly virus, the Queen opted for an ambitious speech with the intention of reassuring and inspiring the citizens.
At the same time, mainstream journalists have debated whether Trump's pressers should be broadcast live since he often adds personal anecdotes, inaccurate facts, and self-serving statements during his speeches. A petition has even called for major news networks to stop airing his pressers live.
In the recent past, he has been caught on camera digressing from an update on the facilities being made available at the hospitals for fighting the virus to proudly claim that the hair on the top of his head was real. He also boasted about being "number one" on Facebook and pushed a malaria drug as a "miracle cure" for the virus, even though the head expert of his own task force, Dr Anthony Fauci, said that the drug is yet to hit clinical trials.
On Twitter, he has been no better. He has compared his press briefing ratings to that of 'The Bachelor' and 'Monday Night Football'.
Needless to say, the Queen's powerful and dignified speech during such trying times was preferred by most people over Trump's speeches, which often verge on the brink of rambling.
"In just 5 brief minutes of calm empathy, fortitude & history, the Queen inspired her people to overcome this #coronavirus crisis better than President Trump has rallied Americans with 50 hours of rambling, self-promoting twaddle," British columnist Piers Morgan wrote on Twitter.
Soon others chimed in the same vein. "The difference between the Queen's speech and Trump is simple. Everything Trump says is a variant of 'Look how great I'm doing!' The Queen's speech to her people was 'Look how great you're doing.' It's the difference between a leech and a leader," one wrote, while another tweeted, "Queen Elizabeth gives a coronavirus speech and the contrast with Trump is stunning. And she didn't try to offer advice about untested medication."
A third wrote: "I would rather listen to The Queen speak again than @realDonaldTrump. Living in America working on the front line of this #coronavirus I was more reassured by the Queen than that toxic Trump."
A fourth simply tweeted the Queen's speech video with the caption, "She doesn’t mention her ratings."