Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before debating Joe Biden in September 2020, but never disclosed the results of the test, according to a book written by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Meadows claims that Trump later tested negative and assumed that the initial result represented a false positive. But less than a week later, Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 and had to receive experimental treatment.
Trump also failed to take a COVID-19 test on debate day, a violation of the rules. Debate moderator Chris Wallace said they were relying on the honor system.
The Guardian obtained a copy of Meadows’ book and first broke the news of the undisclosed positive test. The outlet reports:
Meadows says Trump’s positive result on 26 September was a shock to a White House which had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for the supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett – an occasion now widely considered to have been a Covid super-spreader event.
Despite the president looking “a little tired” and suspecting a “slight cold”, Meadows says he was “content” that Trump travelled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called.
“Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows says Sean Conley told him. “He just tested positive for Covid.”
Meadows contacted Trump and informed him about the COVID-19 scare. The Guardian continues:
Trump’s reply, the devout Christian writes, “rhyme[d] with ‘Oh spit, you’ve gotta be trucking lidding me’”.
Meadows writes of his surprise that such a “massive germaphobe” could have contracted Covid, given precautions including “buckets of hand sanitiser” and “hardly [seeing] anyone who ha[d]n’t been rigorously tested”.
Trump then took a second test, which came back negative. Over the next two days, he kept his normal schedule, including holding an event with military families, participating in a meeting with business leaders, and conducting a press briefing.
On debate day, Meadows writes, Trump looked slightly better – “emphasis on the word slightly.” The Guardian explains:
“His face, for the most part at least, had regained its usual light bronze hue, and the gravel in his voice was gone. But the dark circles under his eyes had deepened. As we walked into the venue around five o’clock in the evening, I could tell that he was moving more slowly than usual. He walked like he was carrying a little extra weight on his back.”
Trump gave a furious and controversial performance, continually hectoring Biden to the point the Democrat pleaded: “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.”
Over the next several days, Trump developed a fever and his oxygen level dropped. When he was eventually hospitalized, his doctor refused to clarify when he last tested negative for COVID-19.