Donald Trump Upsets His Supporters Three Times in 48 Hours

Former President Donald Trump upset his supporters in three separate social media posts within 48 hours, which ranged from rebuking claims President Joe Biden made about the COVID-19 vaccine, opposing a TikTok ban, and complimenting Senator Katie Britt on her response to Biden's State of the Union (SOTU) address.

Taking Credit for COVID-19 Vaccine

During Biden's SOTU speech on Thursday night, Trump, who will likely be the Republican presidential nominee in November, criticized it on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In one post, Trump quoted Biden on the COVID-19 vaccine and then took credit for accelerating the vaccine's introduction amid the pandemic.

"'The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The Vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat Cancer – Turning setback into comeback!' YOU'RE WELCOME, JOE, NINE MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU!" the former president wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.

Trump's post received backlash on X, formerly Twitter. Many Republicans opposed the COVID-19 shot and the federal vaccine mandates that were implemented under the Biden administration.

"The amount of anger I have over this can't be quantified in words," Tracy Beanz, editor-in-chief of conservative media outlet UncoverDC, wrote on Friday.

"Almost everything that makes you angry about the authoritarian government response to the pandemic started with the Trump administration," wrote commentator Matt Kibbe. "Reminder: Biden simply doubled down on the same policies."

Ryan Matta, a personality on conservative streaming site Rumble, wrote: "@realDonaldTrump will be wearing @pfizer hat at his next rally! WTF is wrong with this man? Who the F*** would say this s***! We all have friends family and children we know who we're murders by these vaccines!"

Opposing TikTok Ban

Late Thursday night, Trump posted to Truth Social about TikTok, a social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, as TikTok claims that the bill would amount to a ban.

"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" he wrote.

Members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party introduced a bill this week, which was passed in a 50-0 bipartisan vote by the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, that would "incentivize divestment of TikTok" by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to similarly target social media companies controlled by a "foreign adversary." The legislation that was advanced now goes to a vote to the full U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump seemed to shift his opinion on TikTok, considering that as president in August 2020, he issued an executive order ordering ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets and destroy all data within 90 days.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham wrote on X on Friday: "This is a big mistake by the Trump campaign: Trump claims TikTok ban would only help 'enemy' Facebook."

Igor Bobic, senior politics reporter at HuffPost, wrote via X on Friday that Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, disagrees with Trump's comments.

"I'm not a fan of Facebook but TikTok is a qualitatively different deal. It's a backdoor for the Communist Chinese party," Hawley told Bobic.

Steve Bannon, a conservative media personality and Trump's former White House chief strategist, wrote on Gettr on Saturday about Trump's new stance on TikTok: "Simple: Yass Coin."

Bannon was referring to billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a $33 billion stake in Bytedance. Last week, Trump spoke at the Club for Growth retreat where he called Yass "fantastic," despite the billionaire being critical of Trump in the past.

Complimenting Senator Katie Britt

The former president also received some heat for his response to Senator Katie Britt's attack on Biden's SOTU speech. The Alabama Republican bashed Biden's border security policies and called the president "a dithering and diminished leader" in a video that has been widely mocked.

Trump posted late Thursday night: "Katie Britt was a GREAT contrast to an Angry, and obviously very Disturbed, 'President.' She was compassionate and caring, especially concerning Women and Women's Issues. Her conversation on Migrant Crime was powerful and insightful. Great job Katie!"

"I thought she was terrible! And I am on your side," Truth Social user @MaryUSAfan1776 replied to Trump's post.

User @Kjkj629 wrote: "It was actually pretty embarrassing.. Her speech was okay.. but her delivery was terrible."

Responding to Trump's post, user @insidetrackcoach commented: "Totally disagree. Didn't need a bedtime story. We should have called out the lyes [sic], explained the bs bills, and hit hard that the border could have been closed by an executive order. Republican rebuttal sucked."

Update 3/10/24, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.