In the era of President Donald Trump, so many actual events sound like they could be articles from The Onion—the satirical media outlet whose headlines use comical social commentary to point out the absurdity of actual events.
One example is the time Trump—or someone on his staff—edited an official hurricane forecast with permanent marker in order to make his erroneous claims about the hurricane's path seem correct. Or when he bragged that his nuclear button was bigger than Kim Jong Un's.
The most recent instance was in a Thursday press briefing when the President mused about the possibility of injecting disinfectant as a cure to the virus that's caused a national health crisis in the United States.
Watch below.
The President inquires about injecting disinfectant? https://t.co/75kGQkD0h7— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn Torabi) 1587680298.0
The President said:
"I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection inside or almost a cleaning? Cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that. You're gonna have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me."
So absurd was the statement, people couldn't believe it didn't come from The Onion.
this is not The Onion this is not Brass Eye this is actual news: disinfectant manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser has… https://t.co/HArhg7EisO— Jim Pickard (@Jim Pickard) 1587723964.0
Not The Onion: Lysol warns against injecting disinfectant after Trump speculates on coronavirus cure https://t.co/FXHEYgcux8— Brinley Hineman (@Brinley Hineman) 1587748070.0
The fact that this isn’t the onion is so sad 😭 https://t.co/is5KoRB5mr— d (@d) 1587751701.0
Or was it...?
Because we've inexplicably found ourselves in the most absurd timeline in existence, it turns out The Onion inadvertently predicted this statement this past March—when it seemed like the idea could be satirical.
Man Just Buying One Of Every Cleaning Product In Case Trump Announces It’s Coronavirus Cure https://t.co/3bKatQGz04 https://t.co/0kkhWzjl98— The Onion (@The Onion) 1585165326.0
The article covers a fictional man named Troy who stocked up on house cleaners and disinfectants in case the President announced that they were the cure to the virus.
It was intended to be a commentary on the blind devotion of the President's supporters, because surely the President wouldn't suggest that injecting disinfectant could prove to be a cure.
How naive we were.
Given the absurdity of the era, some joked that The Onion ins't fake news, but downright prophetic.
The Onion was NEVER fake news. It's just news written by a time traveler with a horrible sense of humor. https://t.co/mVYANRAn32— LaBlaq, your favorite #ComicBookBabe 💋🌟 (@LaBlaq, your favorite #ComicBookBabe 💋🌟) 1587739476.0
the onion is less satire and more full-blown prophetic scripture rn https://t.co/eLB1bT3mMQ— SheRa Marley, but far away (@SheRa Marley, but far away) 1587732922.0
The Onion is now a source of news a month in advance. Yikes. https://t.co/gWjvsYwDOH— Viced Rhino (@Viced Rhino) 1587740114.0
CAN I PLEASE MOVE TO THE TIMELINE WHERE THE ONION DOES NOT SHOW PRECOGNITIVE ABILITIES? https://t.co/e4M8OssbyQ— Natick Bobcat (@Natick Bobcat) 1587745776.0
Some terrible event happened which split us off into the alternate universe where every Onion article becomes true https://t.co/vfxWafowos— turner joy lynch (@turner joy lynch) 1587748782.0
How is this real?
part of me thought everyone was kidding when they said trump suggested injecting our bodies with disinfectant, but,… https://t.co/tiWPOMGZMr— sel (@sel) 1587739863.0
Is this real life? Did Trump just suggest that American's could inject disinfectant (i.e. Clorox) into our bodies?… https://t.co/pakyc6zjqs— Kai (@Kai) 1587712077.0
It’s 2020 and the manufacturer of Dettol has issued a press release telling people not to inject themselves with di… https://t.co/7vlzmBFTaj— Daniel Gumble (@Daniel Gumble) 1587739533.0
We shudder to think of what The Onion will predict next.
For a deeper look into the absurdity of the Trump era, check out A Very Stable Genius, available here.