COVID & TRUMP

     Hmmmm... how to react to the news about President Donald Trump testing positive for Covid-19? I’m just honest enough (hope you are too) to acknowledge there was a side of me that did a “Yahoo” salute when I heard the news. Poetic justice, right? After all, this is the train-wreck-of-a-man who is like the drunk driver who kills another innocent driver who just happens to be out for a joy-ride. But my euphoria was quickly replaced (c’mon, you knew I wasn’t really that bad, didn’t you?) by sorrow for anyone who comes down with this vicious, pernicious disease. And I’m truly sorry the President has tested positive: it’s no way for anyone to live their lives.
     Interestingly, amid my jockeying back and forth between feelings on this diagnosis, I was besieged by an associate who is absolutely convinced it was a Trumpian trick: fake news. “C’mon PJ,” he said,” you know as well as me that Trump lies about everything. Why stop here? His ‘admission’ of a positive test gets him out of the next debate and leaves him claiming, on the other side, about just how easy it is to beat the virus, you know, ‘something I’ve been saying all along’.” 
     OK, gotta tell you I’ve never been a conspiracy theory guy at the best of times (with the exception of my belief in the fact that Lee Oswald didn’t kill JFK), but I didn’t see this one coming. Looking back, as soon as I heard the news about Trump’s positive diagnosis, it never occurred to me it wasn’t authentic. But... hmmm... my pal has a point. Trump is an inveterate liar. Why stop here?
       Going to Walter Reed pretty much out the kibosh to my friend’s theory.
       But what’s worrisome is that there is so much that’s false about the current U.S. president that anyone even stopped to think his claim might just be bogus. And that’s sad.

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