Vogue reports:

President Donald Trump announced at a White House event on Monday that he has been taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine for “a couple of weeks” as a preventive measure against COVID-19.

A lot of people don’t believe him.

Immediately after the startling announcement, dozens of critics took to Twitter to doubt the president’s claim. “Raise your hand if you think that Trump is lying about taking #Hydroxychloroquine,” tweeted the widely followed health advocate Peter Morley. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Trump, who has been known to lie once or twice, is lying about taking hydroxychloroquine,” added the political commentator Emma Vigeland. “It’s so obvious that it’s almost not worth pointing out, but Trump saying he’s taking hydroxychloroquine is one of his oldest media tactics,” tweeted the Vanity Fair political reporter Gabriel Sherman. “In this case, say something outrageous to hijack news cycle and distract from 90K dead Americans.”

In a long Twitter thread, the former New York Times reporter and best-selling author Kurt Eichenwald stated: “Speaking as someone who has known Trump for decades, I promise you he is lying about taking hydroxychloroquine. I also expect he will soon trot out some physician to lyingly confirm he is or will drop the topic and deny he ever said it. The purpose of EVERY Trump lie is some form of personal aggrandizement—either reconfirming his deluded sense of ‘greatness’ or informing people he is right when he is wrong. Add to that—the man is stupid. Taking hydroxychloroquine falls directly into that lie/stupidity pattern.”

Rolling Stone was even blunter in its report headlined, “Trump Says He’s Taking Hydroxychloroquine, But He Also Lies Daily.” The New York Times also seemed to quickly realize that perhaps Trump was not entirely truthful, changing its initial headline on its story “Trump Is Taking Drug That Doctors Say Carries a Risk” to the more qualified “Trump Says He Is Taking Drug …” [Continue reading…]