Anna Wintour jokes that Trump should be first to ‘try drinking disinfectant’

American Vogue editor criticises US president in new essay

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Anna Wintour has teased that Trump should be the first person to “try drinking disinfectant” after the US president suggested that people inject themselves with it to treat coronavirus.

The remark was immediately rejected by doctors on social media, and later by Trump’s own public health advisers, including those who were with him in the White House briefing room when he made the jaw-dropping comments.

Trump has since claimed that he was speaking “sarcastically“ at the time.

On Monday, Wintour published an essay on American Vogue‘s website in which she criticised the president’s approach to the pandemic and questioned what post-lockdown life would look like.

“I think we’ve all gotten past the idea that life will simply snap back to normal,” the Vogue editor wrote. “(Except our president, who thinks we should try drinking disinfectant mixed with sunshine. To which I say, you first.)”

Wintour continued to expand upon the wider ramifications of Covid-19.

“Our economy is struggling in profound ways and will be struggling for some time to come,” she wrote.

“As all the scientists tell us, this virus will not simply disappear.”

Wintour went on to urge her readers to support Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election, who she believes will help the US to recover from the pandemic.

“We must choose new leadership, because we will only re-emerge if we have a president who we can trust, who can be honest, who has the capacity for empathy, and who actually listens to science,” she wrote.

“Please join me in supporting Joe Biden, whose experience and decency, I believe, will make him that kind of president, and who I believe will put our country on a path to recovery.”

Wintour added that she is advocating for Biden because of his dedication to combatting climate change.

“My hope is that under a new president we will find a way to rebuild sustainably,” she wrote. “We must.”