As doctors, nurses, healthcare officials, and scientists nationwide were preparing for the delivery of COVID-19 tests (that still haven’t arrived) and an onslaught of new coronavirus patients, Donald Trump hit the links at Mar-A-Lago, getting in some golf at his favorite course before dining with Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president of Brazil.
On Thursday, Brazil confirmed that Bolsonaro’s press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home from Mar-A-Lago with flu-like symptoms. Representatives of the White House said that there was no need to have Donald Trump or Mike Pence tested for coronavirus because they had "limited contact" with the Brazilian officials, despite there being multiple photos and videos of them interacting, standing directly next to each other and shaking hands. Perhaps they don’t understand how this disease is spread.
They may want to reconsider, because Bolsonaro’s office is confirming today that the Brazilian president has also tested positive for the coronavirus. So why haven’t Donald Trump and members of his White House staff self-quarantined? Why are they publicly claiming that they haven’t even been tested and have no plans to be? Do the images below look like “limited contact” to you? How do they think this virus is transmitted?
Is there any doubt that Donald Trump is refusing either to be tested or to self-quarantine because of his ego? The alternative is that he is being tested and monitored and he is lying to the American people. Either way, it’s gross incompetence, perhaps even deadly incompetence. People’s lives are at stake, and he may be infecting those around him.
In fact, Bolsonaro and Wajngarten are not the only people members of the Trump administration have met with in recent days who’ve tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday morning, Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, announced that only days after meeting with Ivanka Trump (why was she there?), Attorney General Bill Barr, Kellyanne Conway, and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan, he tested positive for the virus after coming down with a fever and a sore throat. Needless to say, the Australian minister had posed for photos and very likely had physical contact with Ivanka and Barr. Dutton said that, per Australian health policy, he has been hospitalized for treatment and quarantine.
There is no legitimate reason these Trump White House staffers and Department of Justice officials are not being tested regularly. There is every reason they should be following the CDC’s directive to self-quarantine. There is little doubt that the only reasons they aren’t taking these steps are ego and appearance. After calling the coronavirus pandemic a hoax and weeks of downplaying the dangers of the virus on Fox News, these people just can’t bring themselves to admit that they are both wrong and vulnerable to this disease, just like the rest of us. Even notable moron Ted Cruz has announced he’s extending his self-quarantine after a second person he had come into contact with tested positive for the coronavirus.
They have an obligation to set an example for the rest of us, especially the viewers of Fox News and the senior communities who are not taking this threat as seriously as they should be. The next 30 days are going to be very difficult for the nation, and this is a time for truth and science, two things that have been absent from this administration from day one. And boy, is this nation worse off for it. But if Trump won’t self-quarantine, perhaps voters will do it for him this fall.