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President Donald J. Trump contracted COVID-19 and checked into Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, Oct. 2 and within three days, he returned to the White House. This is one of the most irresponsible decisions that could possibly have been made for a sitting U.S. President.
First, let’s break down the timeline as confusing as it has become. President Trump received a positive diagnosis on Thursday evening, and according to the President, he was to begin quarantine and recovery. On Friday, the President was airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center via Marine One initially reported as to be out of an “abundance of caution,” however it was later reported that the President was actually moved to Walter Reed because of a drop-in oxygen saturation and for expressing symptoms of COVID-19. He was treated with an experimental cocktail of antibodies as well as two other experimental treatments, typically reserved for those with severe symptoms of COVID-19. The President remained at Walter Reed until Monday when he was discharged by his medical team.
Naturally, the world watched as the President’s health was in question. In such a crisis, it’s direly necessary for the people to be informed. The White House, through chief of staff Mark Meadows, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and White House physician Sean Conley gave a mixed message of the President’s condition. Conley provided vaguely worded information at his press conference, deflecting direct questions about the President’s health. Meadows alluded that Conley’s description could be a little too rosy, prompting more confusion into the severity of President’s condition. McEnany in a roughly two-question presser refused to answer any questions about the number of people infected in the White House staff or the President’s condition. It certainly feels like the emperor has no clothes, and he does not want to visit a tailor.
Why is direct information about the health and safety of the President of the United States important? The answer is obvious. How can we have any confidence in the government when we don’t even know if we’re being had? The conflicting information out of White House staff is one indicator that the President’s condition is not quite as positive as we’ve been led to be believed. However, that wasn’t the only indicator.
In his fourth year as President, Donald Trump tweeted at an approximate rate of 33 tweets a day. After his COVID-19 diagnosis, his tweet rate dropped to four. It should also be noted that the President was supposedly doing work on Saturday from Walter Reed but it’s obvious things are not normal because before, he was working and tweeting 33 times a day. The only direct communication we saw from the President and proven to be from the President were in the form of allegedly staged photos showing the President signing his signature on a blank piece of paper and supposedly working and two videos from Walter Reed where the President looks to be experiencing more discomfort than his team would like to let on.
After three days in Walter Reed, the President was moved back to the White House where he filmed a promotional video for his campaign, and he does not look well. He’s very clearly gasping for air as he stands on the White House balcony and removes his mask. He then, walked into the White House spreading his positive infection. This is a man who holds no regard for anyone but himself, because by removing his mask and moving about the White House, he is directly putting his staff in more danger than they already are.
The last thing to note is the prognosis. Donald Trump, as much as he’d like to obfuscate it, is a 74-year- old obese man with considerable risk for heart disease and diabetes. That’s practically every at-risk group related to infection from COVID-19 and on top of that, he is the President of the United States, one of the most stress-inducing positions there is to have. Stress reduces a person’s immune system’s ability to fight disease. What can we realistically expect to happen from this clearly irresponsible decision? Of course, there are contingencies in place, but one of the likely outcomes does not look good Donald Trump. There’s the added measure of the medicines that he is on to treat COVID-19, namely dexamethasone. The drug is a corticosteroid, known in some cases to cause delusions of grandeur, mood swings and lower levels of lucidity. Once again, I say the emperor has no clothes, and he must go.