Impropriety at the White House

Still contagious, Donald Trump continues to play down the danger of COVID-19 and take risks. His priority: Showing that he is powerful and ready for combat. Meanwhile, the White House is now a hotbed of pandemic.

In deciding to leave the hospital on Monday while still contagious and on steroids, Donald Trump provoked bewilderment and questions among the medical world. But that’s not all. The president of the United States turned his exit into a performance, with skillfully orchestrated drama. First, by announcing it himself on Twitter and bypassing his doctors, making astounding claims in a country where COVID-19 has already killed more than 210,000 people and infected 7.4 million others. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” he tweeted. Then there was the gesture. Having arrived at the White House, he very quickly ripped off his mask. His priority: to be immortalized by the White House photographer in front of an American flag, and appear invincible, thumbs up. Without a mask.

A Danger to Others

The gesture was shocking. Should it be taken as mockery, a desire to downplay the pandemic once again and make people believe he has floored the virus? Above all, he is enormously irresponsible because Trump is still sick and “may not be entirely out of the woods yet,” as his physician Sean Conley revealed a few hours earlier. Trump underwent very heavy treatment reserved only for serious cases of the virus. A hasty return to the Walter Reed military hospital if his health deteriorated would be a difficult episode to manage. But the gesture is above all irresponsible because Trump represents a danger to others.

The White House is now a hotbed of pandemic. Among the president’s entourage, positive COVID-19 tests are coming in one after another. The list is growing longer. Among his team, the latest to test positive is his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. You can easily imagine how horrified the White House staff is at having to work in such an environment where there is a risk of fatal infection. The same situation applies to the Secret Service agents charged with the president’s personal protection.

During the first presidential debate, Trump failed to respect the established rules. He arrived too late to be tested. Members of his family removed their barely worn masks, almost as a political statement. There was nothing of the sort in Democrat Joe Biden’s camp. During the debate, the president mocked his opponent for wearing such a huge mask.

Now infected with COVID-19 but anxious not to appear vulnerable even if has been through moments of concern, Trump wants to demonstrate that he is back on the campaign trail, ready to go the distance at any price. That he hasn’t given up one bit. That he is able to climb the White House stairs up to the Truman balcony, stairs he doesn’t ever take. Didn’t he just tweet about his discharge from hospital, “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”? This is pretty much an invitation to contract COVID-19. Meanwhile, his physician still refuses to disclose when Trump last tested negative.

Trump’s experience with the pandemic, once he is cured, could have benefited him. With humility and compassion, he could have turned it to his advantage. Instead, Trump symbolizes negligence, even arrogance. Contaminated, the White House has become more than ever a symbol of how disastrously the pandemic has been managed.