System of a Down singer Serj Tankian had some choice words for Donald Trump, blasting the US president for his self-ingratiating comments regarding the federal response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Tankian shared a video of Trump speaking on Wednesday, during which the president praised his response to the crisis as “one helluva job.” After making yet another derision of so-called “fake news,” Trump said, “you wouldn’t even have a country left” if not for the White House administration’s actions. He also claimed that “certain people [would like the US] not to open so quickly — would like it to do financially poorly, because they think that would do well at defeating me at the polls.”
Tankian’s response on Twitter: “Nepotism, egocentricity, and stupidity at its best.”
In recent days, Trump has said that he hopes the United States can be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter”, even though staffers in his own administration warn that the epidemic could last for several weeks or even months.
In addition to his tweet, Tankian shared a meme posted by filmmaker Michael Moore, showing Trump with duct tape over his mouth alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci. The words read: “Dr. Fauci unveils a mask that could save millions of lives!”
Previously, Tankian’s SOAD bandmate Shavo Odadjian dismissed the coronavirus panic as “the stupidest thing.” During an appearance on The Jasta Show podcast on March 15th, the bassist said [via Blabbermouth], “It’s just a regular cold, bro, at this point.”
“I know it’s scary — it’s scary to have this new thing,” he said, “but every two years we have something new, man. We went from Zika to the f**king swine flu to SARS to Ebola, back to this, back to that… And it’s, like, every time they don’t have something, they’re gonna bring something else back and say, ‘Oh, remember this? Wasn’t it scary? Well, it’s back. We have two new cases.’ Ooh, the world panics, bro…”
The podcast was taped at least a week before airing, prior to the widespread testing for COVID-19 in the United States, and it seems like Odadjian has changed his tune since then. He recently shared Tankian’s Instagram post urging for support of Los Angeles hospitals and health workers, and he posted a photo of himself wearing a face mask while recording music with his side project, North Kingsley.
See Tankian’s tweet and Instagram post below, followed by video of President Trump’s aforementioned comments.
Nepotism, egocentricity, and stupidity at its best https://t.co/lEFeyi560T
— Serj Tankian (@serjtankian) March 26, 2020
Serj Tankian Calls Trump’s Coronavirus Comments “Nepotism, Egocentricity, and Stupidity at Its Best”
Jon Hadusek
