Day 1,354: Trump keeps risking the health of those around him for photo-ops
Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis has seen him terrified, manic, non-forthcoming and everything in between.
He has also been incredibly dangerous.
Despite knowing he was positive — or at the very least, ill with those around him testing positive, depending on the story to be believed — he attended a New Jersey fundraiser on Thursday afternoon, putting dozens of attendees at risk.
He has continued to put people at risk. On the way to the hospital, very ill, he filmed a clip, without a mask, to be published on his social media pages. In the hospital, he’s continued to do the same thing.
The White House published pictures of Trump “working,” which amounted to him signing a blank piece of paper with a Sharpie.
Then, Sunday, upping the danger, a bored Trump went on a joyride to wave at supporters outside Walter Reed hospital, forcing drivers and security to put themselves at risk.
The latest stunt, especially, pissed off Secret Service and Trump’s doctors.
Current and former Secret Service agents and medical professionals were aghast Sunday night at President Trump’s Sunday evening trip outside the hospital where he is being treated for the coronavirus, saying the president endangered those inside his SUV for a publicity stunt.
A growing number of Secret Service agents have been concerned about the president’s seeming indifference to the health risks they face when traveling with him in public, and a few reacted with outrage to the trip, asking how Trump’s desire to be seen outside of his hospital suite justified the jeopardy to agents protecting the president. The president’s coronavirus diagnosis has already brought new scrutiny to his lax approach to social distancing, as public health officials scramble to trace those he may have exposed at large in-person events.
“He’s not even pretending to care now,” said one agent after the president’s jaunt outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“Where are the adults?” said a former Secret Service member.
An attending physician at Walter Reed was one of Trump’s harshest critics.
Trump is willing to do whatever is necessary for a photo-op, including taking the shortest possible trip to Afghanistan in his only trip, standing next to wall prototypes at the border, having peaceful Americans gassed so he could hold up a Bible, meeting with Kim Jong-un and flinging paper towels at Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
For four years, Trump has shown little regard for those around him: aides get humiliated, Cabinet officials fired on Twitter and political allies slandered. Yet his total disregard for the health of those that protect his life is, in many ways, the most appalling.
1,354 days in, 108 to go
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