Despite the rise in coronavirus cases in the United States, the Trump administration has continuously tried to downplay the severity of the global pandemic. As if the administration has not received enough criticism, one of Trump’s latest tweets has made even more people furious.
Trump spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, and as he is known for being quite present on social media, he took to Twitter to quote tweet White House social media director Dan Scavino’s tweet of a photo of Trump playing the violin. The caption on the photo read “My next piece is called Nothing Can Stop What’s Coming” with which Trump tweeted, “Who knows what this means, but sounds good to me!” as his caption.
Although it may have been perceived as a cool image or meme, many prominent figures were quick to call Trump and Scavino out for that. The image is referencing the saying “Fiddle while Rome burns” which is also a reference to the Roman emperor Nero, who was said to have been playing the violin while Rome was being destroyed by a fire.
Among those figures who called Trump out for sharing this photo was former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi, who responded to his caption saying, “It means that playing golf while Americans die during an uncontained epidemic makes you look like Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The fact that neither you nor your social media director understand this meme and retweeted it makes you even more oblivious than Nero.”
Former Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub also echoed Figliuzzi’s response. “The president, who’s goofing off at his golf resort as his administration’s train wreck of a pandemic response goes from bad to worse, retweets an image posted by HIS OWN social media director that’s reminiscent of Nero fiddling as Rome burned. Because neither has heard of Nero,” tweeted Shaub.
Meanwhile, Trump is still actively campaigning for his reelection in November and due to the coronavirus outbreak, Politico reports that First Lady Melania Trump has decided to cancel the upcoming fundraiser in Beverly Hills that was to take place on March 18th. According to White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, scheduling conflicts have prompted Melania to decide not to push through with the fundraiser for her husband’s campaign.