Speaking to the Republican National Convention at a resort near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the former president had said that everyone should call the vaccine the Trumpcine, according to CNN's Kevin Liptak who shared this over Twitter, citing someone in attendance.
Trump's seeming attempt to credit himself with the success of the COVID-19 vaccine seems to be due to his "Warp Speed" initiative in 2020, which had been made to boost efforts at creating a vaccine to stop the global pandemic.
Since then, multiple vaccines have become available, such as those made by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Consequently, the pandemic has seen a decline, and many places are beginning to open up after a year of lockdowns and social distancing.
However, the Trump administration has also been harshly criticized for its perceived slow response to the pandemic, and since Trump left the Oval Office in January, some notable criticism has even come from his coronavirus task force.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who coordinated the White House coronavirus task force under president Donald Trump, told CNN in late March she believes the COVID-19 death toll in the United States would have been substantially lower if the government had responded more effectively.
Criticism also came from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president for both Trump and President Joe Biden. Fauci and Trump had long been at odds with one another, with Fauci criticizing the former president's handling of measures to slow the spread of the pandemic, and Trump claiming that Fauci was "a disaster" and "made a lot of mistakes."
Notably, Trump had also called out Fauci at the event, with Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey noting on Twitter that he had made fun of Fauci for his advice and for the pitch he threw at the first game of the US baseball season, between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees (a pitch that Fauci himself wants to redo, calling his first attempt "quite embarrassing," according to Business Insider).
“Have you ever seen anybody that is so full of crap?” Trump said of Fauci.
He had also called out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling him a "dumb son of a b*tch," as part of his ongoing dispute with the leading Senate Republican and the other GOP lawmakers who had come out against him following the second impeachment trial for the Capitol riots. Reuters contributed to this report.