--- title: "Donald Trump Touts Vaccine Safety, Humiliates Right-Winger" description: "We never thought we’d see the day when erstwhile President Donald Trump took far-right personality Candace Owens to task for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but then again, 2021 has been full of surprises. In a viral video that baffles the imagination, Owens attempts to bait Trump into disparaging the vaccines that were so […]" date: "2021-12-24" modified: "2021-12-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/donald-trump-vaccine-safety" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "conspiracy theories" - "covid-19" - "donald trump" - "vaccines" --- # Donald Trump Touts Vaccine Safety, Humiliates Right-Winger ![Former President Donald Trump took far-right personality Candace Owens to task for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines because, clearly, 2021 still has a few surprises left for us yet.]() *\Image: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images\* We never thought we'd see the day when erstwhile President Donald Trump took far-right personality Candace Owens to task for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines — but then again, 2021 has been full of surprises. In a viral video that baffles the imagination, Owens attempts to bait Trump into disparaging the vaccines that were so swiftly manufactured at the end of his presidency, thanks in part to the multi-billion-dollar bet he took with Operation Warp Speed. And, to no one's shock, he didn't take kindly to her poo-pooing what he's now calling his "greatest achievement." https://twitter.com/Kukicat7/status/1473743177806974977 "I came up with three vaccines, all are very very good, came up with three of them in less than nine months, it was supposed to take 5-12 years," Trump told the conservative pundit. Owens tried to pin COVID deaths on current President Joe Biden, and even tried to link coronavirus fatalities to vaccinations because "more people took the vaccine this year" — skating right past the fact that the vaccines weren't widely available to the public until early 2021 — but Trump simply wasn't having it. "The vaccine works," he insisted. "The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine." Lest anyone give Trump too much credit here, it should be noted that at multiple times during the short interview clip, when Owens asked Trump about mandates for both masks and vaccine, the former president repeatedly said he was against both, and that he was against kids having to wear masks as well. Perhaps more bizarre even than Trump's newfound cheerleading of COVID vaccines — which, to be fair, seems to have little to do with science or public safety and everything to do with the fact that he thinks he deserves credit for the vaccines — was an aside in which he jumped to the defense of China. When discussing children having to wear masks at school, Owens harkened back to the early pandemic when she said that kids in masks made the US look "like China," Trump interjected. "Well, China's education system is a hell of a lot better than ours," the former president said. "You know what, they're rated number two or three and we're rated number 44." Owens brushed it off. "But masking children, right?" Nevertheless, the effect was bizarre to anyone who recalls Trump's xenophobic stance towards China, especially when he kept insistently calling COVID the "China virus." If nothing else, COVID has clearly turned the world so upside-down that Donald Trump is now praising both China and vaccines. **More pro-vax Trump:** [*Trump Gets Booed by His Own Fans When He Admits He Got Booster Shot*]() **And COVID craziness:** [People Got Sick at a Conspiracy Conference. They’re Sure It’s Anthrax.]() \[*Vice News*\] ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()