US President Donald Trump laughed off the idea that he had advised Americans to inject themselves with bleach to fight coronavirus, telling reporters at the White House the remarks were meant to be a sarcastic question to them.

The president was addressing the newest DHS study, about the effects of sunlight and common disinfectants on the virus on surfaces, at the daily press conference on Thursday, when he wondered if “something like that” could be done “inside” people.

NEW: Just now at the PPP bill signing, @weijia asked the President to clarify his comments about injecting disinfectants. The President said he was posing a sarcastic question to reporters, and claimed he didn't ask medical experts to look into this.From the WH transcript--> pic.twitter.com/EFbgjie1ae — Sara Cook (@saraecook) April 24, 2020

#BREAKING: President Trump says remarks about heat, light, disinfectant were sarcastic: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen." https://t.co/lPysHfFKBbpic.twitter.com/mtY7dZgNnj — The Hill (@thehill) April 24, 2020

Just about every media outlet reported on the remarks as if Trump was advising Americans to ingest disinfectant. Asked about it on Friday, as he signed the $484-billion coronavirus aid package, the president categorically denied giving such advice and said he was asking a “sarcastic question” of the reporters present in the White House briefing room.

Also on rt.com No, Trump did NOT suggest injecting disinfectant to treat Covid-19

Some reporters on the White House beat, such as CNN’s Jim Acosta, remained convinced that he had in fact been earnest.

Trump telling reporters he was just being "sarcastic" yesterday when he suggested that people could inject themselves with disinfectant as a treatment for coronavirus. per TV pool reporter @weijia (note: in the video it did not appear he was being sarcastic) — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 24, 2020

“That’s not how it looked in the briefing, and not how it came across,” said Fox News anchor Brett Baier, clearly unconvinced by Trump’s explanation.

.⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ went back and forth in the Oval about disinfectant. He repeated perhaps it would be useful to treat people with the virus along with getting light inside the body, but when pressed then said of course he was not encouraging people to ingest disinfectant pic.twitter.com/BFDzksMVgS — Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) April 24, 2020

While Trump often makes confusing remarks that require significant effort to parse, the MSM covering the president have repeatedly interpreted them as uncharitably as possible. Last month, they uniformly blamed Trump’s advocacy of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a promising Covid-19 treatment for the death of a Nevada man whose wife fed him chloroquine phosphate – an entirely different chemical used as fish tank cleaner – and claimed she was following Trump’s advice.

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