Day 1,145: Trump fears media will intentionally infect him with coronavirus
Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories know no bounds. Birtherism, deep state, Ukraine and more, Trump wades into the conspiracy theorist pool all the time.
Take coronavirus, for instance.
Trump has falsely called it a “new hoax,” falsely said members of the media are focusing on the disease to knock him down politically, and falsely continues to downplay the dangers of the illness.
(One reason confirmed cases in the U.S. are so low is that there have been backlogs in getting Americans tested. Those backlogs are the result of the U.S.’s failure to have enough tests ready and a reticence to test people who very likely have the disease. Italy, which had just a couple hundred infected a few weeks ago, now has nearly 10,000 people infected and the entire country is quarantined.)
Now, Trump has a new coronavirus conspiracy theory that also undercuts his previous ones: he’s concerned that he’ll be intentionally infected by members of the media.
Stories about Trump’s coronavirus fears have spread through the White House. Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.
A lifelong germophobe, Trump’s fear that members of the media may intentionally get infected with coronavirus so they can transmit it to him on Air Force One is ludicrously illogical. He believes that media members — people with lives and families of their own — will risk their own well-being to try and get him sick with a disease he claims is not particularly harmful to begin with.
On top of that, Trump claims he wants to continue to hold rallies with thousands of people in close proximity in attendance. From a probability perspective, that’s a far more dangerous activity for him and those around him when it comes to becoming infected.
Ironically, it’s Trump’s far-right cronies that may make him sick.
Three more members of Congress, including President Donald Trump’s future chief of staff, have announced that they would self-quarantine after coming into contact with an individual who has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, who was named as the incoming White House chief of staff on Friday night, announced Monday evening that he has been tested for coronavirus and that test came back negative. However, he’s staying in self-quarantine until Wednesday, said Ben Williamson, Meadows’ chief of staff. Meadows has not yet taken his new job and was not scheduled to start this week, an official told CNN.
Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida became the third and fourth members of Congress to take the step, following the same announcements from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona on Sunday.
Collins shook Trump’s hand when the President went to Georgia on Friday to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Gaetz rode with Trump in the presidential limousine and took Air Force One back to Washington with him on Monday.
Trump is concerned about a random group of people getting him sick on purpose when it’s really his closest allies that are far more likely to make that happen by chance.
1,145 days in, 317 to go
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