Former President Donald Trump faced open criticism from some of his supporters over the weekend when he revealed he recently received a booster vaccine against the coronavirus.
Trump’s announcement came during the final stop on the History Tour he co-headlined with former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly on Sunday.
The former Fox News hosts tells the crowd, ‘Both the President and I are vaxxed’, before asking Trump, ‘Did you get the booster?’ video tweeted by O’Reilly’s No Spin News shows.
‘Yes,’ Trump replies, prompting a smattering of boos from the audience.
‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,’ Trump says in reaction, appearing to try and quiet the boos.
‘That’s all right, it’s a very time group over there,’ the ex-president says, pointing out the group dissatisfied with his action.
Some longtime supporters of the former president oppose vaccinations, and many oppose President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates.
‘If you don’t want to take it, you shouldn’t be forced to take it,’ Trump said before urging his political allies to take credit for the vaccine. ‘But take credit because we saved tens of millions of lives. Take credit. Don’t let them take that away from you.’
Trump contracted the virus in October of last year and spent several days in the hospital just before Election Day. He was given the vaccine shortly before leaving the White House.
A recent study found that people living in counties that voted for Trump are significantly more likely to die of the coronavirus than those in places that voted for Biden.
It found that counties where at least 60% of voters backed Trump had death rates 2.7 times higher than areas that largely voted for Biden.
His supporters’ vaccine hesitancy may not come as a surprise, after a report came out Friday that found that Trump’s administration made ‘deliberate efforts’ to undermine the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic for political gain.
The White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance by the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials in order to promote then-President Trump’s political agenda, according to the report.
It comes as Covid-19 cases surge across the US. Cases are expected to jump 55% to 1.3million weekly by Christmas Day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts.
Trump promised ‘big crowds’ ahead of the tour with O’Reilly, but his expectations fell short, as many of the shows attracted sparse crowds.
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