My wife and I still discuss this from time to time. That whole episode just seems too “perfect” and convenient (eg Trump the egocentric idiot gets covid, goes to hospital for a day or so, emerges like a Phoenix from the flames) to not be invented, contrived and stage managed. If someone wanted to concoct the perfect covid scenario, Trump’s would be close to ideal, as a means of demonstrating his all-powerful nature. Contrast with Boris Johnson’s covid experience.
I’m just curious to see what your thoughts are about that?
The President was isolating in the White House residence, where temporary office facilities were set up adjacent to the building’s basement medical suite. Doctors were continuing to monitor his vital signs, and he was expected to receive an intravenous dose of the antiviral remdesivir on Tuesday night.
At least three additional staff members, including senior adviser Stephen Miller, were revealed to have tested positive on Tuesday. The atmosphere inside the White House was described by one official as “chaotic,” largely because many people were working remotely and the President was calling the shots. The West Wing remained largely vacant.
As @Smapti said, there’s no way his ego would allow that if he hadn’t really been sick.
CNN also has a list of everyone in Trump’s inner circle who did and did not test positive:
I guess it depends on how many layers of deceit he’s willing to descend through; to me it would be the perfect Trump scam (just my opinion/gut feel - not necessarily disagreeing btw).
I have to admit that I had completely forgotten about that particular aspect.
Trump can’t plan that far ahead or keep to a schedule for his perfidy even with guidance. This is a guy who has run multiple waterfront casinos into bankruptcy. If he were this smart, he’d have successfully managed his 06 January 2021 coup attempt instead of fumbling it like a character from a Farrelly Brothers movie.
Yeah, the “perfect” episode (from Trump’s hagiographic point of view) is that everyone around him gets it, but he himself never gets more than a sniffle. The fact that he went to the hospital at all goes against his “I am a perfect specimen of health” talking point, and the broader republican “it’s no worse than a cold” talking point (but not their “it’s a super dangerous chinese bioweapon” talking point).
I think it’s an interesting question, but I can’t really come up with another bullshit Trump story where he had to allow himself to look genuinely weakened in order to look strong in the end.
The Perpetual Victim Gambit seems materially different to me. The notion that everybody is “very unfair” to him doesn’t show that he’s been/being harmed by the chimerical slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
It shows how they all bounce off his (virile, sinewy) chest.
Full disclosure - at this point I have to agree with everyone so I’m not disagreeing, I’m just shooting the shit and venting a bit.
True enough.
Except he never looked weakened (not that I recall TBH), so I’ll actually need a refresher on this. How did he get from the White House to the hospital? Gurney to helo to hospital, or waltz into limo to hospital and waltz in like me checking into a hotel on a business trip? I honestly don’t remember.
And, even then, he downplayed it, and when he was released from the hospital, he insisted on walking back into the White House, and triumphantly pulling off his mask for the camera, to demonstrate his health and vigor.
Given his habits and those of the people around him, and given his general level of health, it’d be amazing if he hadn’t caught covid. I mean, when you go out and deliberately try to be infected by a disease, you’re probably going to succeed eventually.
And given the level of resources he had at his command, it’d be at least remarkable if he didn’t recover well from it. Treatments like monoclonal antibodies work well, if you can afford them.
According to reporter Maggie Haberman, Trump actually wanted to walk from the helicopter back to the White House and then open his shirt to reveal a Superman shirt underneath.
