On Friday, social media platforms were ablaze with screenshots supposedly featuring former President Donald Trump blaming President Joe Biden for a string of deaths linked to Panera’s charged lemonade.
However, the viral images were later revealed to be a satirical creation by comedian Keaton Patti, known for his work on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Onion, as reported by RawStory on Friday, December 15.
Patti’s four fabricated screenshots depicted Trump giving a campaign speech in Coralville, Iowa, with inflammatory text underneath each image.
The quotes falsely attributed to Trump insinuated that under Biden’s presidency, even the lemonade had become lethal, a claim that stirred controversy and rapidly spread across the internet.
While Patti’s tweet gained significant traction, garnering nearly eight million views by 9 PM on Friday, social media users began to question the authenticity of the quotes. Some noted the clever mimicry of Trump’s speaking style but deemed it too witty to be a genuine statement from the former president.
Forbes contributor Matt Novak further discredited the screenshots, confirming that Trump never made any comments about Panera’s lemonade during his Coralville speech.
“I refuse to investigate if the Trump Panera ‘lemonade that kills you’ comments are real,” tweeted user @StuTheLimey. “It’s so funny it transcends simple notions of truth or fiction.”
The uproar over Panera’s charged lemonade stems from recent incidents in which two individuals died after consuming the highly caffeinated beverage.
Dennis Brown, a Florida man, experienced cardiac arrest after unknowingly ingesting three charged lemonades with his dinner, unaware of the drink’s elevated caffeine content.
Another tragedy involved 21-year-old college student Sarah Katz, who suffered cardiac arrest in September 2022 after consuming an undisclosed quantity of charged lemonade. In response to legal actions from the Brown and Katz families, Panera has added warnings about the beverage’s caffeine content to prevent further incidents.
