CNN anchor Jake Tapper poked fun at President Donald Trump after he promoted a new "cure-all" bed for U.S. hospitals over the weekend.
Trump promoted the concept of "med beds," posting an AI-generated video to his Truth Social account and claiming Americans would receive cards to gain access to advanced hospitals and doctors. The video resembled a Fox News segment and featured an AI-generated Trump promising revolutionary healthcare tech. The post was deleted within hours.
Tapper joined CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale to express disbelief that the president of the United States could fall for such a video, which included his own fake voice.
"It seemed way too good to be true because, of course, it was not true. Not anything about it was true," Tapper told viewers on Monday afternoon.
He called the "med bed" story "terrifying conspiratorial" and an "insane conspiracy theory."
"I’m happy for you that you only just learned about this. So, Med beds are an entirely fictional product that are the centerpiece of a multi-part conspiracy theory popular with QAnon types and other members of the fringe online far-right," said Dale.
The far-fetched conspiracy says the beds can cure cancer, diabetes, and even grow back missing limbs. Believers say the tech has been hoarded by a secretive group of liberal billionaires, the deep state, or even the military, and that Trump would return to office and give the beds to everyone.
"It’s fun to make jokes about it, but it's easy to find doctors who are actually encountering actual people with serious medical issues in the United States who are reluctant to get treatment for them because they think they're going to get the med bed and be fine without the medicine that will actually cure them," said Dale. "By promoting this video, President Trump has done something, I think, serious in addition to something pretty weird."
Tapper couldn't get over the bizarre fact that Trump appeared to be duped by such an obviously fake video.
"It’s also just so strange. Does he not know that that was not him? Did he even watch the video before he put it out? Does he think med beds are real and he's opening up a med bed hospital?" asked Tapper, as Dale chuckled. "I know we're like far beyond through the looking glass here, but it's just super strange."
