Viral screenshots of Trump supposedly blaming Biden for lemonade-related deaths are fake

On Friday, screenshots of former President Donald Trump supposedly saying President Joe Biden is to blame for the recent spate of deaths of people who drank Panera's charged lemonade quickly spread on social media. However, those screenshots have been proven to be the work of comedian Keaton Patti, who is a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Onion.

The four screenshots initially tweeted by Patti show the 45th president of the United States giving a campaign speech in Coralville, Iowa, with text below each image. The first screenshot reads: "Everything is bad under Biden. Even the lemonade is killing people. Did you see that? People drink lemonade and die."

"The lemonade didn't kill you when I was President," the second screenshot read. "It was tasty and fun to drink. We loved the lemonade, didn't we?"

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"We did, but not under Biden. Bacon is more money. Gas is more money. The lemonade is more money and it kills you," Trump is shown allegedly saying in the third screenshot.

"When life hands you lemons, Joe Biden kills you with them," the fourth screenshot read.

While Patti's initial tweet of the screenshots has been viewed nearly eight million times as of 9 PM on Friday night, social media sleuths eventually found out the alleged quotes were bunk. Some noted that while "it catches his cadence really well," the post was "too clever" to come off as a legitimate Trump quote. Forbes contributor Matt Novak watched Trump's Coralville speech and confirmed that the former president never said anything about lemonade.

"I refuse to investigate if the Trump panera 'lemonade that kills you' comments are real," Twitter/X user @StuTheLimey tweeted. "It's so funny it transcends simple notions of truth or fiction."

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The furor over Panera's charged lemonade stems from earlier this month in which two people who drank the highly caffeinated beverage ended up dying. Florida man Dennis Brown suffered cardiac arrest after drinking three charged lemonades with his dinner (the size was not specified). He reportedly didn't know about the drink's high caffeine content, and said he tried to avoid caffeinated beverages due to his high blood pressure. 21-year-old college student Sarah Katz also died of cardiac arrest in September of 2022 after drinking an unknown number of charged lemonades. Panera has since added warnings about its lemonade in the wake of wrongful death lawsuits filed by members of the Brown and Katz families.