Trump's Covid-19 Timeline Raises Questions About a Potential Cover-Up

Strategic Insights -

Throughout this star-crossed year, Donald Trump has routinely misled the country about the coronavirus. He stood on a debate stage Tuesday and mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask. Now it has to be asked: Did Trump hope to cover up his own Covid-19 infection? It's a harsh question as the President received treatment in the Walter Reed military medical center. Yet it is begged by his own dubious track record of disclosure and the White House's characteristically murky handling of facts surrounding his illness.

Key Takeaways:

  • Trump's White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, refused to discuss when the President's last negative Covid test occurred, setting off alarms about a potential cover-up.
  • Conley's assertion on Saturday that Trump had begun treatment for the virus 72 hours earlier, later walked back, suggested that Trump might have lied to a national TV audience about his positive test.
  • Trump knowingly attended a fundraising event Thursday with donors at his Bedminster Golf Club after testing positive for Covid, despite being exposed to a staff member, Hope Hicks, who had already tested positive.
  • Hicks had traveled with Trump to Tuesday's debate in Cleveland and a rally Wednesday night in Minnesota, where she fell ill. She was said to have been quarantined on Air Force One on the trip home.
  • If Hicks' illness had not been outed by Bloomberg, and Trump had not developed symptoms, would the White House have shared news of his positive test?
  • Trump's reluctance to disclose his Covid-19 infection is attributed to his desire to stifle news of his illness in the final weeks of a tough reelection campaign.
  • Trump's deceptions about the severity of the virus have been a major issue in his reelection campaign, with over 209,850 Americans dead and the US accounting for more than 20% of the world's Covid deaths.

Statistics:

  • 209,850 Americans have died due to Covid-19, with projections that the toll could nearly double within months.
  • The US, with just 4% of the world's population, has more than 20% of the Covid deaths.
  • 72 hours is the timeline suggested by Dr. Sean Conley for when Trump began treatment for the virus, later walked back.

Sources:

  • CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod, via CNN
  • Bloomberg News
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Bob Woodward, in interviews with Trump
  • White House sources (names and titles not provided)