An evangelical pastor hit President Donald Trump in the White House Monday to save him from a spider, asking Secret Service agents not to shoot him.
Pastor Mark Burns of South Carolina gathered with other evangelical leaders Monday to present an award to Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when Burns noticed a white spider the size of half-dollar crawling up Trump’s back, according to the Washington Post. Burns, who hates spiders, took action and loudly smacked the arachnid with his bare hand on Trump’s back, to the surprise of everyone in the room.
“A spider almost ate him,” Burns said, according to WaPo. “It made such a loud noise, and I think people were bewildered and were like, ‘What did you just do?'” Burns added about the smack.
Burns quickly tried to justify his slap, saying “Security, please don’t shoot me! He had a spider on his back.”
Trump, according to Burns, remained calm throughout the whole affair, and simply asked “Well, did you kill the spider?”
Burns did indeed slay the offending creature and sent pictures of it to experts to be identified. Scientists said it was a yellow sac spider, which are common in the D.C. area and “probably account for more human bites that any other type of spider,” according to Michigan State University. The bites can be very painful with similar (albeit less severe than) symptoms associated with a black widow bite, including a burning sensation, rash, blisters, and even fever and cramps. Sometimes necrotic lesions occur as well.
Burns joked with Trump afterwards that he deserved a medal.
“I just said to the president, I said, you know, ‘I still got your back.’ He said, ‘I know you got my back,'” Burns said, according to WaPo.
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