Politics

Donald Trump Struggling To Breathe Has Become A Meme After He Downplayed His COVID-19 Diagnosis

"Me in class when I already coughed once and coughing again would be embarrassing."

by Michelle Rennex  7 October 2020
donald trump struggling to breathe covid-19 meme

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

On October 2, Donald Trump announced that he and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, had tested positive for coronavirus.

The unsurprising revelation came after the US President spent months downplaying the severity of the disease and questioning the necessity for face masks. Just a few days earlier, during the first Presidential Debate that could only be described as an absolute shitshow, Trump even mocked Joe Biden for seemingly always wearing a mask.

“I don’t wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask,” Trump said during the debate. “He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

But in a beautiful case of irony, it was Trump who contracted the virus, along with numerous other members of the White House, and not Joe Biden.

But after only a short three day stint at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre to treat his COVID-19 diagnosis, Trump decided to leave the hospital and prematurely return to the White House. Once out of hospital, the president stated that he was actually “FEELING GREAT” and “feeling better… than 20 years ago“.

However, upon his return, Donald Trump appeared to be struggling to breathe during a White House photo-op. Despite still being contagious, Trump left the hospital and ditched his face mask to reveal his laboured breathing that was captured on camera.

Yet in a follow-up video posted on Twitter thanking the healthcare staff that treated him, Trump urged Americans to “not let [coronavirus] dominate their lives” and to “not be afraid of it” because he was “better and maybe immune” to the disease now.

However, medical experts quickly noted that the president was clearly showing “increased work of breathing” and was very obviously “not a man who is better“.

“This is a textbook example of increased work of breathing,” Dr Ilan Schwartz, an infectious diseases clinician and researcher, explained in a series of tweets. “In addition to using normal respiratory muscles (the diaphragm and those between the ribs that expand the chest cavity), ‘accessory muscles’ in his neck are kicking in to help draw a breath.”

But even without medical knowledge, this sentiment was shared by the general public too, who believe that the president was either struggling to hold back a cough or was genuinely gasping for air.

Either way, Donald Trump looking unwell totally contradicted all his earlier statements that he was feeling the best he has ever felt over the last two decades.

So naturally, everyone started to mock the president and his failed attempt at trying to convince everyone that he isn’t feeling the affects of coronavirus. People quickly applied the clip of the president looking short of breath to other situations where trying to hold in a cough or pretend you’re not totally out of breath is common.

But really, only one thing mattered: Just how much Donald Trump struggling to breathe was looking like the iconic Vein Popping guy.

Honestly, just let that cough out, Donnie. It’s fine. We know you’re struggling.