“I’m really having a hard time wrapping my head around this,” admitted Seth Meyers in Tuesday night’s A Closer Look segment. He’s referring to Trump’s claim that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria medication the president’s been hyping for weeks as a cure and/or preventative treatment for COVID-19, despite the lack of evidence for either — leading to warnings of severe side effects and shortages for patients who actually need it.
“Either [Trump’s doctors] gave him hydroxychloroquine or he’s lying about taking it, and honestly I’m not sure which is more psychotic,” said Meyers.
The Late Night host reminded viewers of Trump’s history of selling “chintzy and in many cases fraudulent products” with his name on them — from steaks to degrees to a Trump-branded vitamin regimen that was “personalised” based on a mailed-in urine sample — and his more recent habit of asking out loud, in front of cameras, whether everything from flu vaccines to household disinfectant might be effective against coronavirus. Then Meyers played footage of Trump touting hydroxychloroquine again on Monday, claiming that he’s been taking it for “a week and a half” because he’s been “getting a lot of positive calls” about it.
“You gotta be careful, man,” joked Meyers. “People your age get a lot of scam calls. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out the White House had a reverse mortgage on it.”