The young self-proclaimed leader of "the Anti-Masker's Club" has dubbed former President Donald Trump a "dumb boomer" over his promotion of COVID-19 vaccines.
Ethan Schmidt, best known for sharing online videos of himself harassing people over wearing masks or getting vaccinated, announced that he was withdrawing his previously ardent support for the ex-president over the weekend. The Arizona-based Schmidt speculated that Trump could be in cahoots with "the cabal" while warning that the jabs might be a "precursor" to the "mark of beast" as he compared COVID-19 to "the common cold."
"The CLUB & Affiliates no longer support President Donald Trump; for HIS SUPPORT of the Big Pharma & it's CONV-VID 2019 vaccine," Schmidt wrote in a statement posted Sunday to the Anti-Masker's Club channel on Telegram. "Hereafter / Anyone that goes to/ supports/ promotes Trump by attending rallies (unless to protest) after his support for the vaccine should be questioned and brain cells should be counted."
"Trump is now openly supporting BIG PHARMA, DR APE MAN FOUCCI, and DEPOPULATIONIST PC BILL, by supporting the vaccine. Which arguably and likely is or can be the mark of beast precursor or set up," he continued. "Trump is either a dumb boomer who fell for the media exaggeration hype of the common cold (like many other boomers) Or he is evil and played along with the cabal .. personally I think he's a DUMB BOOMER with the VACCINE, like so many others..;,("
Not long ago, Schmidt was photographed wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and a "Trump 2024" shirt. Only about 30 minutes before Schmidt renounced Trump, his Telegram channel shared a message from Arizona Republican state lawmaker and Trump conspiracy theorist Wendy Rogers, who claimed that "Trump won and Biden is an imposter."
Moments after he renounced Trump, Schmidt posted a poll that asked, "Is Trump EVIL & working with the cabal or just a dumb boomer for supporting/apparently getting the vaccine?" A slight plurality of respondents agreed that Trump was a "dumb boomer," although nearly as many said he was both "EVIL" and a "dumb boomer."
Although Trump has taken credit for the COVID-19 vaccines since before they were available to the public, he has recently increasingly ruffled the feathers of his some of his anti-vaccine supporters for continuing to make statements in support of the jabs.
The former president was booed by his audience at a rally in Alabama after urging the crowd to become vaccinated last August. He was also booed after revealing that he had received a booster shot during an event with ex-Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly last month.
After being directly confronted by the prominent conservative anti-vaccine advocate Candace Owens, Trump maintained that "the vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind" and correctly noted that people who "get very sick and go to the hospital" due to COVID-19 tend to be "the ones that don't take the vaccine."
Signs of cracks in Schmidt's support for Trump were evident in past posts to the Anti-Masker's Club Telegram channel. In December, he shared clips of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones denouncing Trump for supporting the vaccines, labeling one of the clips "Trump officially sells out." He also shared a poll that asked, "Is TRUMP the antichrist?" A 70 percent majority of respondents answered "no."
Schmidt, who has also been photographed posing with Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on at least one occasion, continues to post videos of himself harassing people for wearing masks or for becoming vaccinated amid the deadly pandemic. A video of a maskless Schmidt claiming to be a victim of "discrimination" while harassing mask-wearing workers at a Mesa, Arizona wig store went viral last summer.
"I just love harassing people, especially cancer patients, because they're weak and vulnerable and easy targets," Schmidt said in a more recent video, which he later claimed was "clearly sarcastic."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.
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About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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