- The latest Trump COVID update released about the president’s condition on Sunday came from the president himself. After recording another video blasted out to his social media followers, President Trump briefly left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to ride around outside and wave to supporters.
- Meantime, reporters are still sorting through very real questions about the severity of the president’s condition, after he confirmed his COVID-19 diagnosis in the early morning hours on Friday.
- A Trump campaign aide on Sunday, ironically, also continued to make fun of Joe Biden for his own mask-wearing, despite the fact that the former vice president is currently COVID-free.
If you only take your cues from President Donald Trump himself, his close aides, or his medical staff, each day’s Trump COVID update seems to sound rosier than the last. The president is getting better, symptoms are mild, he’s going to be back on the trail soon, he’s beating this thing — that’s the message that Team Trump has been resolute about conveying since the boss’s COVID-19 diagnosis was made public in the early morning hours on Friday.
If you head over to the official web page of the White House Gift Shop, for example, you can already buy a limited-edition “Donald J. Trump Defeats Covid” coin for just $100. White House physician Dr. Sean Conley told reporters Sunday that the president might be able to be discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as soon as Monday. And the Trump campaign is apparently so confident in the boss’s prognosis that also on Sunday, one aide felt assured enough to appear on one of the Sunday morning news talk shows and, once again, insult former Vice President and Trump rival Joe Biden for his own wearing of a face mask in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Too often, (Biden) has used it as a prop,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller about the former Veep — who, again, currently does not have COVID-19 and who has been following the protocols like mask-wearing which President Trump, who does have COVID-19, has consistently refused to follow.
Miller was speaking on ABC’s This Week, and he continued: “(Masks are) very important, but even if — (Biden) could be 20, 30 feet away from the nearest person and he could still have the mask on. That’s not gonna change anything that’s out there.”
The fact that the Trump campaign, even at this stage with Trump himself have contracted the virus that’s now sickened more than 7.4 million Americans, would continue to ridicule Biden’s approach to the pandemic would seem to be pretty ironic, to say the least. Moreover, this was merely one of several new story angles that reporters were scrambling to grapple with over the weekend, including the conflicting accounts that emerged of the true severity of the president’s condition.
Even Conley, on Sunday, acknowledged to reporters that he had not been as candid as he could have been over the past few days, in order to “reflect the upbeat attitude” of his boss.
Trump's doctor says he didn't admit yesterday that Trump was put on oxygen because he was trying to be publicly upbeat. "I didn't want to give any information that might steer the illness in another direction." pic.twitter.com/luMyDyacZH
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 4, 2020
Trump, for months, has steadfastly resisted being seen wearing a face mask, in spite of the insistence from the White House Coronavirus Task Force that social distancing and face masks are what save lives during the pandemic. Not only that, but Trump has insulted reporters who’ve worn masks around him, in addition to making fun of Biden for wearing a face mask as recently as the first presidential debate — which came days before Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
“We can’t all just stay in our basement for the rest of our lives,” Miller said on Sunday. “We have to get out there and live our lives and take this on … You can’t just stay hidden in your basement the entire time.”
Speaking of “getting out there,” that’s also exactly what Trump did on Sunday. He could be seen briefly being driven around outside of Walter Reed so that he could wave to supporters.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1312842736563879936
President Trump waves to supporters outside of Walter Reed. It's unclear if he's been discharged or was trying to surprise his supporters outside the medical center. pic.twitter.com/EMKfAPaDRZ
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) October 4, 2020
