You Will Anyway

Before Marine One departed for New Jersey [on Thursday], some White House staffers who had contact with Hicks were pulled off the presidential helicopter, but Trump plowed ahead. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 in two separate tests later that evening, after returning to Washington. In a televised phone call shortly before 10 p.m. with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Trump said he had “just heard” about Hicks’s diagnosis — which wasn’t true — and didn’t disclose he had already tested positive. That was in keeping with other efforts Trump has made to keep a lid on the emerging crisis. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump told an adviser who had also tested positive, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump waited until nearly 1 a.m. on Friday to reveal publicly, on Twitter, that he had Covid-19.

So why did he take such a risk — and put so many others in danger — by visiting Bedminster?

  Bloomberg

Because he's an asshole?

“It was deemed safe for the president to go,” said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has since tested positive for Covid-19, in a press briefing last week. “He socially distanced, it was an outdoor event and it was deemed safe by White House operations for him to attend that event.”

Most accounts note that Trump went for a political fundraiser. And yes, a lucrative campaign event was afoot. An email to supporters said individuals who paid $2,800, and couples who paid $5,600, could attend a reception with Trump in Bedminster. For $50,000, supporters also got a photo-op with the president inside the clubhouse. For $250,000, donors could join an exclusive roundtable discussion with Trump. (None of this sounds particularly socially distanced or entirely outdoors, but McEnany and I may have different definitions of those terms.) About 100 people attended, and millions of dollars flowed to the president’s re-election campaign.

But most of the reporting on Trump’s trip has overlooked another reason he was intent on being at Bedminster. There was another event taking place there last Thursday that could have held greater sway with the president than the political fundraiser.

One of Trump National’s most important annual events, a tournament known as the Gentlemen’s Invitational, kicked off that day. It’s the largest golf event the club hosts each year. Participants were invited for practice rounds on Thursday, the tournament began Friday, and it continued over the weekend.

[...]

And it’s likely that the club, like many of Trump’s golf properties, has been ailing financially; it had to shut down entirely earlier this year after the coronavirus began its stampede.

[...]

[A] person directly familiar with the club’s operations and the Gentlemen’s Invitational, who requested anonymity because he feared retribution from the club and Trump, told me that hosting the Gentlemen’s Invitational added hundreds more bodies to the crowds milling around Trump National on Thursday.

[...]

A Trump appearance in Bedminster, while a burden on the town and residents who live nearby because of the crush of traffic and security, is good for his business — especially this year. [...] Trump openly mingled political and business affairs at Trump National last week, with an added measure of irresponsibility around his own health and those he came into contact with in Bedminster.

[...]

Given the opportunity to cross-fertilize his business, his political prospects and his ego, Trump didn’t blink, despite the public health dangers involved.

[...]

This person said that the tournament was originally limited to 60 members and their guests, but because Trump National “needed the money” it expanded the event to 91 members and their guests, for a roster of about 182 golfers.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said his state has opened an investigation of the Bedminster fundraiser to find out whether Trump National complied with the state’s coronavirus rules for large gatherings.

A picture should be enough investigation.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.