An abundance of caution
Trump is on the way to Walter Reed.
The visual of Trump striding out alone to the helicopter is likely to be seen as a reassurance that his case of coronavirus is still mild.
Still mild today. Maybe less mild tomorrow and less mild again the next day.
It’s totally normal, says the White House. Nothing to see, says the White House.
White House officials have described the choice to move Trump to Walter Reed medical center as a choice made “out of an abundance of caution,” and have described him as “working from” Walter Reed for the next few days. But the move has prompted obvious questions: if the president has only “mild symptoms,” why move him to the hospital?
Because by “mild” they mean…erm…
Staff is very very very busy closing that barn door.
The White House issued a statement on the hospital move:
President Trump remains in good spirts, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day. Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days. President Trump appreciates the outpouring of support for both he and the First Lady.
For both he and the First Lady.
That would be a first. No television then?
Ooooh, Mr. “My uncle was at MIT, I know more about this stuff than ANYBODY,” is suddenly listening to medical experts. Where was this marvelous power of listeningnine months ago when it might have saved hundreds of thousands of Americans from death, and hundreds of thousands more from permanent debilitation?
So probably no golf then, either.
The whole timeline stinks to high heaven, and he has definitely lied at least once. The problem is that he and his minions have to reassure the markets and his ‘base’; but every reassurance makes the rest of us assume he is lying.
Firstly, the timing. So very convenient for getting him out of any more ‘debates’. So the loudest voices are the sceptical ones. So he goes into quarantine. See? He has it! But then the reassurance that he doesn’t have symptoms. So more scepticism. So the claim that he does too have symptoms! And then the reassurance that they are mild. So more scepticism. So the trip to hospital. And then the reassurance that it’s precautionary. So more scepticism. And all in the space of a day.
Whoever is handling this bit of spin is as incompetent as his boss.
Perhaps to remove a sweat gland from his upper lip? [many reassurances in this thread of Philip Roth’s OUR GANG]
In a classic example of the inability of some people to learn anything, immediately after Trump strode out alone to board Marine One, around a half-dozen of his staff followed him into the rather confined space of the helicopter.
Oh, and it may have been mentioned elsewhere, but Kellyanne Conway has also tested positive, the seventh attendee of Trump’s Rose Garden announcement of his Supreme Court nomination to have done so thus far.