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In the wake of his electoral defeat and subsequent courtroom face-plants, Donald Trump has been mostly staying out of sight lately.
But today, when the stock mark market hit a record high, he came out of isolation to give a brief press conference—and then immediately turned and left before a single question could be asked.
The press conference lasted all of 64 seconds, as a reporter noted—and had many on Twitter howling with mocking laughter.
The press conference was called after the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000 points—an all-time record Trump naturally had to take credit for.
Speaking to the press, Trump first implied his mishandling of the pandemic was responsible for the market rally.
"We've never broken 30,000 and that's despite everything that's taken place with the pandemic. I'm very thrilled with what's happened on the vaccine front, that's been absolutely incredible. Nothing like that has ever happened medically."
"And I think people are acknowledging that and it's having a big effect. The stock market's just broken 30,000."
The President then took direct credit for the stock market's success.
"That's the ninth time since the beginning of 2020 and it's the 48th time that we've broken records during the Trump Administration."
But most experts attributed the stock market's rally to Trump's forthcoming exit from the White House, after several swing states certified their votes for Biden earlier in the week.
Biden's nominee for Treasury Secretary, and the news of the forthcoming vaccines—the most promising of which was not funded by the Trump Administration—also contributed to the rally.
After taking credit, the President closed his remarks with a very odd offer of congratulations to the "people of the country" for the stock market rally before hastily exiting the room without taking a single question. The entire strange affair lasted one minute and four seconds.
In video footage from after Trump's exit, a reporter can be heard saying:
"Well that was weird as sh*t."
And Twitter agreed—roasts and mockery of the President's deeply awkward spectacle rolled in like a tsunami.
As several pointed out, Trump made no mention in his comments of the over 260,000 deaths resulting from his handling of the pandemic. Trump has repeatedly failed to offer condolences or acknowledge those killed by the ongoing pandemic.
If followed a Trump administration pattern of ignoring bad news in the hope it will go away, but it will be difficult to forget over a quarter of a million deaths on Trump's watch.