A new memoir from former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows admits what many suspected all along: Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 before his first debate with Joe Biden in 2020. Then Trump lied about that result, got on a stage with Biden, and continued to downplay the pandemic even as he was exposing everyone in the room to the virus he was carrying.
According to The Guardian, Trump tested positive on Sept. 26, 2020, a full three days before the debate. And a day before he met with Gold Star families to talk about “the value of sacrifice.” Following that first result, he took another test on board Air Force One, got a negative result, and carried on without ever telling anyone about his positive result.
Trump didn’t tell anyone about the positive test when he lectured those military families on “the value of sacrifice.” He told the officials at the debate about the negative test, but didn’t mention the positive test. Two days later, he stood behind a White House podium and delivered a speech in which he said “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”
Then, at 1 AM on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, Donald Trump tweeted that both he and Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19.
The question about whether Trump knew he was positive for COVID before the debate was immediately raised. Trump never admitted to having a positive test result. Trump lied directly to reporters, and through White House press events. Instead, Hicks was treated as the means by which COVID-19 made it into the White House inner circle, when in truth her first positive test came almost a week after that of Trump.
Trump didn’t just lie about the results then, he’s lying about it now.
According to Meadows, when he gave Trump the news on the plane, Trump replied, “Oh shit, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
This is not some complex issue that has a nuanced answer. Trump knows he had a positive test. Meadows know he had a positive test. Everyone who was with him on Air Force One knows he had a positive test. The White House medical staff know he had a positive test. But Trump lied about it then and is lying about it now.
Maybe that’s because the next logical question after “Did you know you were positive when you stepped on that debate stage?” is “Were you deliberately trying to infect Joe Biden with COVID-19?”