Preemptively rejects repeat of school closures, lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates

Peter LaBarbera
WND News Center

Former President Donald Trump in a campaign video Wednesday made a defiant reply to “left-wing lunatics” and “COVID tyrants” who are “trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with their sudden fear-mongering about variants”: “We will not comply.”

Trump mocked the timing of the resurgent COVID hysteria, saying, “Gee-whiz, you know what else is coming? An election.”

“They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots, and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election. Does that sound familiar?” he said in the statement, which is posted on the “Team Trump” X account with the words: “COVID Tyrants want to take away our Freedom. Hear my words – WE WILL NOT COMPLY.” (Team Trump is the official X account for the Trump campaign.)

Trump called the people pushing a new round of potentially tyrannical COVID polices “bad people. These are sick people we’re dealing with.”

“But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply,” he said. “So don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.”

“They rigged the 2020 election and now they’re trying to do the same thing all over again by rigging the most important election in the history of our country – the 2024 election – even if it means trying to bring back COVID,” he said.

There is widespread consensus on the Right, and even grudging acknowledgement on the Left, that COVID fears and lockdowns enabled emergency changes in various state election rules that were used to great advantage by Biden and the Democrats in the 2020 election against Trump.

Regarding a repeat of that scenario, Trump said, “But they will fail because we will not let it happen. When I’m back in the White House, I will use every available authority to cut federal funding to any school, college, airline, or public transportation system that imposes a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate.”

The following “Community Notes” were added to the Team Trump post containing his video: “The Trump Administration along with other federal agencies began the lockdown and social distancing rules in 2020”; and “President Trump issued national guidelines that included closing schools and avoiding bars, restaurants and groups of more than 10,” each with links (see above).

Republican critics push back

Meanwhile, Jenna Ellis, a former member of Trump’s legal team who was among those indicted in Georgia along with him as an alleged “co-conspirator,” published an interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a popular “COVID dissident” doctor, who said then-President Trump ceded too much power to Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx in formulating his administration’s COVID policies during the pandemic.

As WND reported in 2022, in her book, Birx admitted to deceiving President Trump on COVID testing and altering the CDC’s guidance without proper authorization, earning a scolding from Trump’s chief-of-staff, Mark Meadows.

Daniel Horowitz, a conservative writer and podcaster who became a leading voice against the experimental COVID vaccines and oppressive COVID policies, said in an X Spaces group conversation Thursday that the new Trump COVID declaration is a good sign.

“It was a pleasant surprise hearing Trump’s statement yesterday … what it at least tells me is someone got to him,” Horowitz said. Many conservatives, including MAGA supporters who otherwise enthusiastically support Trump, have expressed disappointment at his statements defending the entirety of his administration’s COVID record while belittling that of “average” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Trump video transcript

The following is the verbatim text of Trump’s video Wednesday on COVID that was posted on the “Team Trump’s X account the next day.

“The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming. Gee-whiz, you know what else is coming? An election.

“They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots, and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election. Does that sound familiar?

“These are bad people. These are sick people we’re dealing with.

“But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply. So don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.

“They rigged the 2020 election and now they’re trying to do the same thing all over again by rigging the most important election in the history of our country – the 2024 election – even if it means trying to bring back COVID.

“But they will fail because we will not let it happen. When I’m back in the White House, I will use every available authority to cut federal funding to any school, college, airline, or public transportation system that imposes a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate. Thank you very much.”