Ooops

Isn't she getting the same miracle cure Trump got?

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

They all have Covid

“Barron Trump, he had the corona-19,” the president told a crowd at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, referring to the novel coronavirus. “He had the China virus, right? And he had it for such a short period of time. I don’t even think he knew he had it because they’re young and their immune systems are strong and they fight it off 99.9 percent. And Barron is beautiful, and he’s free, free.”

  The Hill

Ding. Dong.

(Does he always refer to his son by his full name? Not my son, not Barron?)

“It happens. People have it, and it goes. Get the kids back to school. We’ve got to get them back to school,” the president told the crowd.

The private school Barron attends in the Washington, D.C., area, St. Andrew's Episcopal School, has conducted all-virtual classes thus far this school year.

Also Trump in Iowa...

Brilliant.

Always an excuse

In the past, antiabortion advocates have spoken out against medical treatments that use components derived from aborted fetal tissue at any point in the creation and testing processes, including experimental coronavirus vaccines.

However, each group told Insider they would not engage in this controversy — some because they said they believed the cells used in testing bore little connection to the 1972 abortion and others because the antibody cocktail itself didn't contain traces of fetal tissue.

  Business Insider

They should be okay with receiving stolen goods then. If you didn't do the stealing yourself, where's the blame?

Texas Alliance for Life, the Heritage Foundation, and Pro-Life Action League, plus others that didn't respond to Insider's requests for comment, have opposed the use of human stem cells, including those derived from aborted fetuses, to test vaccines including a potential COVID-19 shot.

[...]

According to MIT Technology Review, most scientists don't view HEK 293T cells as fetal cells because of how many times they've been divided, changed, and used over the past few decades.

[...]

Mary Alice Carter, a senior advisor to Equity Forward, a watchdog group that monitors the influence of abortion opponents within the administration, told The Washington Post that Trump "has politically sided with folks who want to see these cell lines no longer used for therapies but went ahead and received it himself."

He had no idea. But even if he had, he'd have received it. 

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

Dexy Don

There's no fool like an old fool.

That reminds me of this clip:

He's going to become addicted to dexamethasone, isn't he?

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

Keeps him out of the White House

President Trump has asked his campaign to put him on the road every single day from now until Nov. 3.

Behind the scenes: His team is in the process of scheduling events to make that happen, two sources familiar with the discussions tell Axios. But not everyone thinks this is a good idea. One adviser said, “He’s going to kill himself.”

  Axios

As long as it doesn't happen before November 3.

The campaign is more worried than ever that seniors — a crucial voting bloc — are abandoning Trump over his handling of the pandemic.

"He really f----d up with seniors when he said not to worry about the virus and not to let it control your life," one Trump adviser told Axios. "There are so many grandparents who’ve gone almost a year without being able to see grandchildren."

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tells Axios: “The president has personal experience with COVID and understands what people are going through."

Oh really? He couldn't visit his grandchildren? (Did he visit them anyway?) He lost his job? Let's make sure he does. Not that he'll understand it had anything to do with the coronavirus. But we don't have to care what he understands once he's out of the White Hosue.

Typhoid Donnie

"At the bottom of the scale."  In other words, he could still be contagious.

In other aspects, he is definitely at the bottom of the scale.

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

UPDATE:

"This evening I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting the CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognized standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others," White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said in a memo.

"Now at day 10 from symptom onset, fever-free for well over 24 hours and all symptoms improved, the assortment of advanced diagnostic tests obtained reveal there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus," Conley added, stopping short of saying that Trump had tested negative for the coronavirus. He also did not say whether the president was still exhibiting symptoms.

  NPR

Gee, I wonder why. Also, the guidelines say you're cleared when you're fever-free IF you're not taking drugs that reduce or mask fever.

The White House said this week that it would update when the president had tested negative for the coronavirus. But by Saturday evening, no such announcement had come.

Spread some more Covid, Don Covita

That's 2,000 fools if they go.

President Donald Trump on Saturday will address hundreds of supporters on the South Lawn of the White House before traveling to Florida on Monday for a rally, marking his return to public events after being hobbled by the coronavirus.

Guests for Saturday’s event won’t be tested for the virus and won’t be required to wear masks, setting off fresh concerns that the White House itself has become a vector for the disease.

  Politico

Going for herd immunity in a big way. Herd idiocy.

Although the president’s physician, Sean Conley, has previously said Trump could likely resume such activities starting Saturday, it’s unclear if the president has tested negative since falling ill, or whether he is still contagious.

The fact that we're not being told should give us a fucking clue.

On Saturday, Trump will speak to a crowd gathered by conservative activist Candace Owens, whose Blexit Foundation encourages Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party.

His speech is being billed as “Remarks to Peaceful Protesters for Law & Order,” according to an invitation. He’ll address the crowd from the Truman Balcony off of the Blue Room, a large state room on the main floor of the White House.

Ha. Covita.

In a statement, the White House said attendees will be “instructed” to wear a mask while at the complex, but will only be screened for Covid-19 with a temperature check and “brief questionnaire" — not a test. The statement added that attendees will be “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s coronavirus guidelines, such as social distancing and mask wearing.

Also...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials.

The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 Americans a day. The officials said that it was drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it.

[...]

The administration requires the task force to sign off on coronavirus-related policies.

[...]

“Local and state authorities need to determine the best approach for their responsive effort depending on how the coronavirus is impacting their area.”

  NYT

So if one state requires masks on airplanes and an adjoining one doesn't, are passengers required to mask up mid-air?

“I think masks are the most powerful weapon we have to confront Covid and we all need to embrace masks and set the example for each other,” Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director, who oversaw the drafting of the order, said in a recent interview.

Then take the advice of your predecessor and stop being a wimp.

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

UPDATE 10/11:

"This evening I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting the CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognized standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others," White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said in a memo.

"Now at day 10 from symptom onset, fever-free for well over 24 hours and all symptoms improved, the assortment of advanced diagnostic tests obtained reveal there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus," Conley added, stopping short of saying that Trump had tested negative for the coronavirus. He also did not say whether the president was still exhibiting symptoms. 

  NPR

Gee, I wonder why. Also, the guidelines say you're cleared when you're fever-free IF you're not taking drugs that reduce or mask fever.

The White House said this week that it would update when the president had tested negative for the coronavirus. But by Saturday evening, no such announcement had come.

Okay, then

Opening the door to validating all those psychiatrists who have been offering opinions on Trump's mental health.

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

Typhoid Donnie

Mr. Trump secured a statement from the White House physician clearing him to return to public activities on Saturday and then promptly said he would try to hold a campaign rally in Florida that day, two days earlier than the doctor had originally said was needed to determine whether he was truly out of danger. The president again dismissed the virus, saying, “when you catch it, you get better,” ignoring the more than 212,000 people in the United States who did not get better and died from it.

  NYT

Mr. Superspreader is a super prick.

In his statement on Thursday night, the physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, reported that Mr. Trump “has responded extremely well to treatment” and that by Saturday, “I fully expect the president’s return to public engagement.” Dr. Conley, who has previously acknowledged providing the public with a rosy view of the president’s condition to satisfy his patient, contradicted his own timeline offered upon Mr. Trump’s release from the hospital, when he said doctors wanted to “get through to Monday.”

All of Trump's doctors seem to have been whores.

The president castigated his own team, declaring that Attorney General William P. Barr would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Democrats like Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama.

[...]

“He’s got all the information he needs,” the president said. “They want to get more, more, more, they keep getting more. I said, ‘You don’t need any more.’”

[...]

“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we’ll just have to go, because I won’t forget it,” Mr. Trump said.

Huh?

Note to Bill Barr: You simply can't debase yourself enough to avoid taking shit from Trump sooner or later. Did you think you were somehow special?

Ditto to Mike Pompeo.

He complained that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had not released Hillary Clinton’s emails, saying, “I’m not happy about him for that reason.”

[...]

The president was all over the map in [...] two Fox phone calls, throwing out unsubstantiated or discredited accusations, explaining that he wanted to bring home troops from Afghanistan to be ready to fight China or Russia if necessary and calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan “the lockup queen” even as his own Justice Department was announcing the existence of an anti-government group’s plot to kidnap her.

As for his opponents, he said on Fox Business that Mr. Biden “wouldn’t be president for two months” because “he’s not mentally capable,” leaving Ms. Harris to then take over the presidency. “She’s a communist,” he said. “We’re going to have a communist.” A few hours later, Mr. Trump reposted Twitter messages claiming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be orchestrating “a coup” against him.

[...]

Ms. Pelosi said she planned to introduce legislation on Friday creating a commission on presidential capacity to review the health of a commander in chief under provisions of the 25th Amendment providing for the temporary transfer of power to the vice president in case of inability to discharge the duties of the office. “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation,” Mr. Trump replied on Twitter.

He's high as a kite on dexamethasone.

Mr. Trump told his Fox interviewers that he felt well despite his hospitalization, although during his evening phone call with Sean Hannity, his voice at times sounded raspy and twice he had to clear his throat.

[...]

Watching the news coverage and angry at the state of the race, Mr. Trump has been imploring aides to let him resume campaign rallies as soon as this weekend. He showed up again in the Oval Office on Thursday despite efforts to get him to remain in the residence until he was more fully recovered. In addition to the attempt to hold a rally in Florida on Saturday, he said he would try to stage one the following day in Pennsylvania.

He is in no shape to go campaigning. Not to mention, he's contagious.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that a person infected with the coronavirus can be with other people 10 days after symptoms first appear if the patient has gone 24 hours free of fever without the use of medication that reduces temperatures and if other symptoms are improving.

[...]

Mr. Trump’s doctors have said he has not experienced fever in days, but the dexamethasone steroid he is taking is known to hide a fever.

[...]

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, even indicated that he was boycotting the White House because of its lax handling of the virus.

“I haven’t actually been to the White House since August the 6th because my impression was that their approach to how to handle this is different from mine and what I suggested that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters.

Mitch may be evil, but he's not stupid.

Experts said resuming a public schedule might worsen Mr. Trump’s condition, which could still rapidly deteriorate in the next several days. Covid-19, an unpredictable disease, can suddenly and unexpectedly worsen during a patient’s second week of illness. Based on the information provided, “No, I would not clear him to start public engagements on Saturday,” said Dr. Phyllis Tien, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, where she conducts and advises on Covid-19 clinical trials.

[...]

[Trump] said he was no longer taking the experimental drugs used to treat the virus, but he added that he was still taking a steroid [dexamethasone] that doctors say can produce bursts of energy, euphoria and even a sense of invulnerability.

He'll be asking for them until the day he dies now.

“I felt pretty lousy,” Mr. Trump said. But, he added, “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young.” He once again played down the severity of the disease. “Now what happens is you get better,” he said. “That’s what happens, you get better.”

Tell that to 210,000 dead Americans.

Mr. Trump later released a video addressed specifically to senior citizens, who were once his political base but have increasingly soured on him as they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, according to polls.

“To my favorite people in the world, the seniors,” he said in the video. “I’m a senior. I know you don’t know that. Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to tell them. But I’m a senior.”

I thought he was joking when he said he was extremely young. I guess not.

Acknowledging that he had been “very sick,” he praised the experimental treatments he was given for the virus and vowed to provide them to seniors. “I want you to get the same care that I got,” he said. “You’re going to get the same medicine. You’re going to get it free, no charge, and we’re going to get it to you soon.”

That is complete and utter bullshit.

Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former aide to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, said that the Trump campaign was entering a dangerous period, one when a campaign heading for a possible defeat can become treacherous.

“The knives come out, the donors flee and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys,” he said. “Most politicians can handle losing a race, but they really don’t want to be embarrassed. When a loss seems inevitable, people who want a future in politics start looking out for their own interests. People start looking over their shoulders.”

And they may well have waited too long to act.

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

Things are not looking good for Chris Christie

Chris Christie is spending his sixth day in a New Jersey hospital battling COVID-19, according to multiple reports.

[...]

Christie’s condition remains unclear.

  New York Post

It's not likely to be good. He's been in the hospital for six days, he's morbidly obese, and he has asthma.

[P]eople he has spoken to have told The Post that the one-time presidential candidate has been upbeat and doing well.

“He’s in good spirits and getting good care,” a source familiar with his condition said after speaking with him Wednesday.

[...]

[O]n Saturday afternoon he tweeted that he was checking himself into Morristown Medical Center as a precaution.

I didn't know you could check yourself into a medical center.

He probably got covid from Trump when he was helping the asshole prepare for the first debate.

UPDATE:  Christie has been released from the hospital.  A very lucky man.

Take a guess

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

What is wrong with these people?

Go on, then.  Kill yourselves.  But stay out of stores and restaurants.

Trump won't debate on Zoom

President Trump says he won't participate in a virtual town hall, after the independent commission that runs presidential debates announced that next week's scheduled event would be virtual for health and safety reasons.

[...]

"I'm not going to do a virtual debate," Trump told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Thursday morning, calling the format "a waste of time."

  NPR

Why? Because he can't infect Biden?

"For the swamp creatures at the Presidential Debate Commission to now rush to Joe Biden's defense by unilaterally canceling an in-person debate is pathetic," [Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager — who also has tested positive for the coronavirus — ] said in a statement. "The safety of all involved can easily be achieved without canceling a chance for voters to see both candidates go head to head. We'll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead."

It's not like they're going to do hand-to-hand combat. They can go "head to head" in real-time video.

"Joe Biden was prepared to accept the CPD's proposal for a virtual Town Hall, but the President has refused, as Donald Trump clearly does not want to face questions from the voters about his failures on COVID and the economy," Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. "As a result, Joe Biden will find an appropriate place to take questions from voters directly on October 15th, as he has done on several occasions in recent weeks."

That's all we need anyway. We know Trump would only bluster and lie.

Stepien then sent another statement Thursday afternoon, calling on the commission to just postpone the second and third debates a week each. So the town hall would happen Oct. 22 and the third debate would be Oct. 29 — both in person.

"Voters should have the opportunity to directly question Biden's 47-year failed record of leadership," Stepien said in his second statement.

Yeah. That's what they said. He'd do it alone if Trump won't participate.

Stepien noted the timing of the commission's announcement of the change of format for the second debate, saying in a statement: "Clearly the commission wanted to shift attention away from Pence's complete [debate] victory."

Yes, that was it. Clearly.

 

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

UPDATE:

Trump's second term: America the banana republic

Donald Trump mounted an overnight Twitter blitz demanding to jail his political enemies and call out allies he says are failing to arrest his rivals swiftly enough.

Trump twice amplified supporters’ criticisms of Attorney General William Barr, including one featuring a meme calling on him to “arrest somebody!”

[...]

“Where are all of the arrests?” Trump said, after several dozen tweets on the subject over the past 24 hours. “Can you imagine if the roles were reversed? Long term sentences would have started two years ago. Shameful!”

By early afternoon, Trump was letting loose his frustrations in an all-caps missive that seemed aimed at nobody in particular.

“DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS, THE BIGGEST OF ALL POLITICAL SCANDALS (IN HISTORY)!!! BIDEN, OBAMA AND CROOKED HILLARY LED THIS TREASONOUS PLOT!!! BIDEN SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO RUN - GOT CAUGHT!!!” Trump tweeted.

  Politico

Time for the thorazine.

“NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT COUGHT [sic] COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS,” Trump declared late Wednesday morning. “PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE!”

[...]

Since late Tuesday, Trump has vowed to declassify all documents he claims will show improper activity by Obama and his intelligence advisers — before quickly reversing himself and suggesting he had already done so “long ago” — and repeatedly cited Russian intelligence services’ claims that Clinton “stirred up” the Trump-Russia collusion scandal that has dogged his presidency.

[...]

A Justice Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment about whether Trump had ever directly asked Barr to order the arrest of his rivals or if his tweet suggesting as much had veered into territory that Barr once said made his job “impossible.”

[...]

The review Barr ordered has disappointed Trump in recent weeks as the U.S. attorney tapped to lead it, John Durham, has signaled he might not pursue the kinds of high-profile prosecutions the president and his allies are demanding. Durham’s deputy in the review, veteran Justice Department prosecutor Nora Dennehy, recently quit the faltering effort and returned to the private sector.

[...]

But Trump has made clear that he remains focused on punishing perceived enemies regardless of the political cost. While recovering at Walter Reed Monday morning, his chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News that Trump had kept busy that morning in part by directing the declassification of documents related to the Russia probe — a set of files he claimed were conclusive proof that Clinton had concocted the notion that his campaign team had ties to Russia even though the Senate Intelligence Committee and the special counsel’s team had rejected the allegations as unverified.

In releasing them, Trump’s own hand-picked intel chief, John Ratcliffe, acknowledged the documents, sourced to Russian intelligence, might have been “exaggerated” or even “fabricated” to deflect from their culpability in the election interference effort.

When you've lost John Ratcliffe...

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

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday suggested that upcoming presidential debates should include clear podiums to prevent candidates from relying on notes, adding that reading prepared statements or information is not “the way the real world works.”

[...]

Trump argued that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden relied too heavily on notes during the first presidential debate last week.

[...]

“I mean, when you’re talking to Putin, when you’re talking to Kim Jong Un, you’re not going to have flashcards that you’re going to look down at,” he added. “It’s not like the way the real world works ... you have to be able to be quick on your feet and you have to actually be able to have a conversation.”

  The Hill

I watched every minute of that debate. I don't know wtf Eric is talking about. His father was on a ranting rampage. (Was he already on dexamethasone?) Joe hardly got a word in edgewise. And I didn't see him reading off notes.  

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

I can't breathe

In an interview on Fox Business, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo that he “figured there would be a chance” he would become infected with the coronavirus, citing his meetings with the families of America’s war dead.

[...]

“Sometimes, I’d be in groups of, for instance, Gold Star families. I met with Gold Star families. I didn’t want to cancel that,” he said. “But they all came in, and they all talk about their son and daughter and father. And, you know, they all came up to me, and they tell me a story.”

[...]

Trump explained that as he was being told these stories about fallen soldiers, “I can’t say, ‘Back up, stand 10 feet,’ you know? I just can’t do it.”

At one event, Trump claimed to have “went through, like, 35 people” whose family members had died, “and everyone had a different story.”

“I can’t back up, Maria, and say, ‘Give me room. I want room. Give me 12 feet. Stay 12 feet away when you talk,’” he said.

[...]

The Gold Star family members “come within an inch of my face, sometimes,” Trump said. “They want to hug me, and they want to kiss me. And they do. And, frankly, I’m not telling them to back up. I’m not doing it.”

[...]

Trump’s remarks Thursday were most likely in reference to a White House event on Sept. 27 celebrating Gold Star families, which several high-ranking military leaders also attended.

Among them was Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Charles Ray, who tested positive Monday — prompting all but one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to self-quarantine this week after they met in a secure conference room at the Pentagon last Friday.

A second high-ranking officer who was at the Pentagon meeting, Assistant Marine Commandant Gen. Gary Thomas, tested positive Wednesday.

[...]

The president previously floated a theory last Thursday that infected service members and law enforcement officers were potentially responsible for White House aide Hope Hicks testing positive for Covid-19.

  Politico

What a prick. 

Trump was likely already infected on Saturday.  They won't tell us when his last negative test result occurred.

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

Jesus Fuck

What a crock of shit.

Trump, high on steroids.

"I was very sick."  That's not what they were saying when he went in.  Then it was, feeling fine, but going in out of an abundance of caution.

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

Cut off your nose, spite your face

President Trump has credited the apparent improvement of his coronavirus infection to, as he put it in one tweet, "some really great drugs" that were "developed, under the Trump Administration."

[...]

For years [Peter] Daszak led a U.S.-funded project that played an important role in the emergence of one of those drugs — remdesivir — as a promising treatment for COVID-19. Specifically, Daszak's U.S.-based research group, EcoHealth Alliance, collaborated with scientists in China to collect fluid samples from bats there in search of coronaviruses that could pose a threat if they spilled over into humans.

Beginning in 2014, virus experts in the U.S. tested remdesivir against some of the bat strains that EcoHealth Alliance had discovered. The results were promising.

[...]

Yet in April the National Institutes of Health abruptly terminated funding for the China bat research project with no clear explanation. In the weeks earlier, Trump administration officials had been pushing a largely discredited theory that the Chinese lab that EcoHealth Alliance was partnered with – the Wuhan Institute of Virology – had accidentally released the virus causing COVID-19. And at a White House press conference days before the funding was pulled, Trump erroneously implied that the entirety of the money had gone to the Wuhan Institute and promised that his administration would take action on the issue.

After an uproar among scientists — including 77 Nobel laureates who sent a letter in protest — the National Institutes of Health said it would reinstate the grant in July. But officials have imposed conditions that Daszak says are unprecedented and purposefully impossible to meet.

[...]

" [The president] is not trying to undermine our organization specifically. He just wants to create a narrative that's anti-China." But he adds a little wistfully, "If collaborating with China on this work led to a drug that might help save his life, maybe that will turn him around and make him realize that this research is the sort of thing we need to be doing."

  NPR

I very much doubt it. Trump is the kind of guy who cuts off his nose to spite his face..

Another researcher who shares that hope is Mark Denison, a professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in studying coronaviruses. Denison notes that the one causing the current pandemic — known as SARS-CoV-2 — is the third coronavirus to prove deadly to humans in the last 20 years, following SARS and MERS. So when it comes to the focus of his research, "I'm preparing for SARS-CoV-3."

But Denison adds that work is now hampered because EcoHealth Alliance has been effectively barred from discovering additional coronaviruses in China — which research suggests is a major reservoir for viruses that could cause future outbreaks.

And speaking of Trump's nose...is this what happens when you put decades of chemical product on your face?

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

It'll happen

White House physician Sean Conley on Monday afternoon told reporters the president met the criteria to be discharged from the hospital and would continue treatment at the White House medical unit, but noted that the president may not be entirely “out of the woods” as he is still in the early stages of his coronavirus infection.

[...]

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says doctors need to be alert to a possible reversal of President Trump’s condition after the president left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Monday evening.

[...]

“The issue is that he’s still early enough in the disease that it’s not a secret that if you look at the clinical course of people, sometimes when you are five to eight days in, you can have a reversal. A reversal meaning going in the wrong direction and getting into trouble,” the nation’s top infectious diseases expert noted.

“It’s unlikely that it will happen, but there needs to be heads up for it,” he added.

  The Hill

I'm no doctor, but I'm going to say it's likely.

He's even more erratic than normal.

Has it been a day even?  And just a short while before stopping the negotiating, he was tweet-screaming for Congress to get it done.  

White House physician Sean Conley said Tuesday that President Trump is reporting “no symptoms” after being discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center during his treatment for the novel coronavirus.

“This morning the President’s team of physicians met with him in the Residence. He had a restful first night at home, and today he reports no symptoms,” Conley wrote in a memorandum issued Tuesday afternoon, less than five days after Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19.

  The Hill

HE reports no symptoms.

Trump has been fever-free since Friday, according to Conley, and otherwise has experienced symptoms of a mild cough, nasal congestion and fatigue.

Sounds like symptoms.

Let's check in on his medication regime.

Dexamethasone is a cheap and widely available corticosteroid that is used to head off an immune system overreaction and treat inflammation.

The drug has risen to prominence as a COVID-19 treatment after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July found it significantly improved the chances of survival for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.

[...]

The announcement that Trump was being treated with dexamethasone raised concerns about the severity of his condition as the drug is typically reserved for patients with severe COVID-19 and not prescribed to patients in the early stages of infection as it can suppress the immune system’s capability to fight off the virus

[...]

On Saturday morning, Trump’s oxygen saturation dropped to 93 percent, prompting the decision to initiate the steroid therapy. Healthy blood oxygen levels range from 95 to 100 percent.

Dexamethasone can cause a range of side effects, from blood clots, headaches and blurred vision to aggression, agitation, anxiety, irritability and depression.

“It can cause psychosis. It can cause delirium. It can cause mania,” Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and associate professor at Brown University, told CNN Sunday.

“I would never want to say the president is experiencing steroid-induced psychosis, but it is certainly concerning to see some of his actions today in the wake of this potentially deadly diagnosis and infectious disease.”

  The Hill