November 20, 2020

Geraldo Has an Idea to Get Trump to Leave: Name a Vaccine “The Trump”

Such a gesture, he suggested, could work to cheer up our septuagenarian baby president.

In an effort to mitigate the sting of defeat, Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera has suggested that a forthcoming vaccine be named after Donald Trump. Such a gesture, he said on Friday, could work to cheer up our septuagenarian baby president as he continues to rely on dangerous conspiracy theories to reject political reality.

“I had an idea: With the world so divided, and everyone telling him he’s got to give up and ‘Time to leave’ and ‘Time to transition,’ why not name the vaccine after Trump?” Rivera told the hosts of Fox & Friends. “It would be a nice gesture to him.”

The fantasy went even further. Rivera imagined a future—one that presumably survived the president’s disastrous handling of the pandemic—featuring Americans saying to one another: “‘Have you got your Trump yet?’ ‘I got my Trump, I’m fine.'”

“I wished we could honor him in that way.”

The utter sincerity with which Rivera broached this idea should not be lost here; he genuinely appears to believe that Trump is not only deserving of such scientific recognition but that it could work as some kind of consolation prize for losing the presidential election. Meanwhile, more than 250,000 people in the United States have been killed by the virus—and the country’s third surge has only just begun.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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