Secret Service agents swear to give their lives for the President of the United States. But shouldn’t they be able to decline to put themselves at risk just to indulge Donald Trump’s narcissistic behavior?
After teasing a “little surprise visit” via video on Twitter, President Trump left the hospital on Sunday afternoon to wave to supporters from the back seat of an SUV.
“It’s been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID,” Trump, who is still suffering from the coronavirus, said in the video. “I learned it by really going to school, this is the real school, this isn’t the ‘let’s read the book’ school, and I get it, and I understand it,” he added.
Then, contradicting his own words and the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the president left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s presidential suite to wave to supporters from a car—a decision that forced at least two Secret Service agents to don personal protective equipment as they shared the same air and enclosed space of the vehicle.
The CDC website explicitly states that if a person is sick with COVID-19, they should stay at home except to get medical care. The CDC’s language is more forceful in its guidelines for health-care workers. “In general, transport and movement of a patient with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection outside of their room should be limited to medically essential purposes,” its FAQ page reads [Patricia Kelly Yeo, “Covid-Positive Trump Ignores CDC Advice to Take Joyride, with Grim Secret Service Agents in Tow,” Daily Beast, 2020.10.04].
Trump has now depleted his own staff’s ranks further by forcing his joyride companions into quarantine:
“This is insanity,” tweeted Dr James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where Trump has been hospitalised since Friday evening.
“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die,” the doctor wrote. “For political theatre. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theatre” [Jill Colvin, Steve Peoples, and Zeke Miller, “‘This Is Insanity’: Sick with Coronavirus, Trump Goes for Drive Around Hospital,” Sydney Morning Herald, 2020.10.05].
In South Dakota, intentionally exposing others to a communicable disease is a Class 2 misdemeanor. Refusing to do what the Department of Health orders while suffering a disease that is the subject of a public health emergency is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Even if the White House had a self-driving limo, waltzing out of the hospital for a joyride is far from standard medical practice and good public health practice:
“He is not sending the right message [by] going in a car while actively viremic with COVID and receiving therapies,” Dr. Amita Gupta, the deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Clinical Global Health Education, told Intelligencer.
“We have been very strict with keeping all patients within their room in negative-pressure isolation and limiting the number of health-care workers interacting with patients with active infection,” the infectious-disease expert explained.
While Gupta said that wearing proper PPE and an N95 mask in the presence of a COVID-positive patient was an effective way to prevent transmission of the virus, she emphasized that “showing the country and the world that it is okay to be leaving the hospital, even for a short drive, is just not a message that should be sent.”
“We would not allow any of our hospitalized patients in the first seven days of their illness to move about unless they were being transferred to another medical institution,” she added, insisting that “nothing about this is a normal situation” [Matt Stieb and Chas Danner, “Trump Briefly Leaves Hospital for Drive-By Photo Op with Supporters,” New York Magazine: Intelligencer, 2020.10.04].
Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace speculates that Trump took his joyride to boost the futures market:
Money speculators did remain optimistic overnight. I’m boggled that anyone can be optimistic when we’re all stuck in a limousine with an infectious madman who does not care if we all get sick.
Most Americans don’t realize that they are watching a man undergo mental disintegration. A number of psychologists have written about it. Never a stable person to begin with, Trump’s erratic episodes are increasingly pronounced. Tuesday’s debate performance presented a man incapable of coherence. The stunt of taking a covid-ridden ride to “show strength” was dangerous juvenilism. Trump is a candidate for Amendment 25, but his GOP supporters will never act in behalf of the nation. They are too obsessed with power, even at the hands of a man floundering in a mental failure.
David, the idea that Republicans will not act pursuant to Amendment 25 seems accurate, but I question the suggested premise that they won’t act because
No doubt they are “obsessed with power” but I can’t see how they would lose any of their current power by removing Trump since that would put Pence in charge. I had the same problem with the theory that Republicans wouldn’t vote to impeach Trump because they didn’t want to lose their power.
Even looking at the question one step back, given the Republican cult mentality today it seems unlikely that a shift from Trump to Pence would cause a significant number of Trump voters to start voting for Democrats. What am I missing?
I wold tend to agree with David on the power issue. This, current GOP is not a traditional power structure: it is a cult of personality. That cult lives and dies (literally) on the strength of its leader, President Trump. If trump is weak, the whole house of cards tumbles.
Irony, hypocrisy, inconsistency, are all for the thinkers; those are not the Trump supporters. All they care about is that the alpha is strong. In that animal world, there is no vice-alpha; there is no constitutional power structure; there is only blind allegiance to one man.
o, in your view then, if Trump dies or is replaced by Pence due to incapacity, Republicans will lose their current power because Trump supporters will then vote for Democrats instead of Republicans?
Pence’s background suggests he would have a different agenda than drumpf. Pence would likely try to establish a right wing kristian theocracy, something drumpf was too unreliable with his loose adhesion to the 10 commandments, to ever accomplish. imho.
drumpf’s in house liar in chief (Kaleigh McEnunbskull) tests positive for covid. Wonder if she thinks it is a hoax?
Never have I witnessed, in my 72 years of life at least 50 of which have included sentience, political “leaders” exhibit such abject cluelessness as have Trump and Noem.
mfi, in that respect Pence seems even more dangerous than Trump, not that current Trumpist Republicans would see it that way or even care.
Way O T…. Led Zeppelin wins copyright over “Stairway to Heaven”case as SPOTUS refuses to get involved.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/led-zeppelin-win-stairway-heaven-153218849.html
bearcreekbat, “replaced by Pence” is something rational people, people who live by the rule of law understand. In a cult of personality, there is not a replacement for the loss of the leader. MAYBE had there been an ordained leader brought through the ranks (again the ranks of the cult — not the ranks of typical legal structures) a Trump jr (or junior-ette) could continue the mesmerizing. Pence is not that leader — he is along for the ride on the coattails of Trump’s personality cult. In fact, I would say the ENTIRE GOP is along for that ride. Trump conquered it; Trump shaped it to his will; Trump demanded and received its unquestioning allegiance.
Think North Korea not US for what any transition will look like.
Bearcreekbat,
o. allies with my thinking on power. It is more the vicarious notion associated with a cult in this case. However, in today’s political climate, Trump supporters would vote for Putin before they’d vote Democrat. The mentality that supports Trump is incomprehensible.
o, I don’t disagree with your observations about the irrationality of the Trumpist voter cult, but I still don’t see how that irrationality would cause Republicans to lose power unless the theory is that these irrational Trumpist Republicans would convert to irrational Democrats, an event that seems unlikely. These cult members might be angry if Trump is gone, but how does it follow that they would support Democrats, especially if Democrats did not offer up another Trump like alternative?
And as far as Republican Senators and office holders go, the irrationality argument seems inconsistent with desire to keep power, as that in itself is a rational desire. So unless Republicans in power that could remove Trump rationally have concluded that his removal would result in a shift to Democratic power, the retaining power theory seems to evaporate into thin air.
Perhaps the Republicans currently in power have concluded that Trump voters would simply stop voting and thereby undermine the election chances of Republicans?
Otherwise that brings me back to the original question – do you (and David) speculate that Trumpist Republicans would convert to Democrats and thereby undermine Republican power? If not, then how do the Republicans lose power iof they dump Trump?
David’s observation that “Trump supporters would vote for Putin before they’d vote Democrat” seems to underscore my confusion, which is further confirmed by my agreement with David that “The mentality that supports Trump is incomprehensible.”
Unbelievably at this very moment Rush Limbaugh is STILL saying the death stats are rigged to make the pandemic seem worse, suggesting Tom Seaver of baseball fame, had dementia for years therefore that is what he died from—not covid.
Cry fire in a theater. FCC regulators anyone? Fox, Rush, “You lie” Rep Baker during Obama State of Nation speech, Tea Party, Newt Gingrich,… the legacy of this kind of propaganda going back as far as you would like, is devastating.
Now he’s talking about the “coup” right: Axlerod, Jim Acosta, long knives hatred in cahoots with the “media”. Main stream media hate of ms. of Macalaenne(?). Republicans are blamed for everything by “these people’s hatred”. Deplorables…racist…not us…they are.”
CNN ratings are so low. He goes on and on.
I think Rush should go to Walter Reed and have a live show with trump. Hannity could be there as well, the ghoulish trifecta. No masks, just a group huge hug while sharing the one microphone.
bcb, I really fear Pence and fauxknee kristians more than drumpf. Pence checks all the bonafides and walks the walk, whether he is sincere or n ot.
bearcreekbat, you are right, none of President Trump’s base will ever go Democrat.
The shift in power has to come from those who voted for Trump in 2016 for reasons (foremost the feeling of being both abandoned and taken for granted by Democrats – ie the Rust Belt). Those voters are not in the cult of Trump, but really did see him as a policy person who could bring jobs back to America, invest in infrastructure, protect the border . . . Those are who Biden needs to (and should) get back into the fold even with a healthy President Trump. I like these people because they remind the Democrats what they need to stand for and need to deliver on when in power.
The shift also comes from the dispersal of the cult; the absence of the strong Donald personality forces other GOP candidates to stand on their own feet — out of the glow of the Cult of the Donald. That opens up Democrat opportunity. Removing the down-ballot races as Trump-by-proxy. I do also see many Trump cultists just staying home if the option is not there to support their dear leader.
A tidal shift is not needed; 2016 was tight, so a swing the opposite direction doesn’t have to be any bigger than those margins. Toss in a few tight Senate races and everything is in play for the Democrats if Donald does not anoint the chosen ones. FOX can only go so far.
Pence certainly has his following, but he is not the heir apparent to Trump and the Trump death cult.
I also fear that Trump has broken the ability to govern this nation by undermining so many institutions, and worse, broken the ability to BE governed for so much of the US population, his death cult.
I think Republicans have elected moldable incompetent leaders. A string of them. Those in charge, the Mercers, the Murdochs, the Adelsons, the Ellisons, the Kochs, use Behnors, McConnells, and Federalist Societies who mold/draft Thunes and Cottons and Gowdeys and Nunes and Cruzes and Rubios, Ernsts, Rounds, RAGAS and think tanks to achieve billionaire satisfying corrupt historically racist agendas using emotional wedge and divisive issues.
Like abortion, immigration, Iranian nukes, N. Korea, Ukraine and definitely Putin meddling.
Trumps taxes says it all. Billionaires don’t want to pay for social safety nets. They need cops and the military to protect their assets. The David Lusts want to serve the “ruling” class with tiny red state legislatures crafting trust havens to launder money and preserve massive inheritance. Fox, limbaugh, and militias are used to serve up unrealistic fear to distract the rest of us.
Listen to HRC right before the last debate. What a powerful first female president she would have made. The Rachel Maddow show podcast, 9.29.20@33:00-39. Not a word wasted. She clearly has healed from that devastating 2016 loss to the GOP/Russian manipulated Trump election.
What’s the news? the apprentice prez has been mentally ill for as long as he has been old enough to be a spoiled brat.
o, it is likely true that many voters who were disillusioned by Democrats voted for Trump but are not really cult members.
It would interesting if we could compare the number of Trump voters that would be lost to Republicans if Trump was removed from office against the number of votes Republican might gain back from their more stable and thoughtful party members who are now going to vote against Trump. It would be comical irony, or maybe just karma, if removal of Trump would have resulted in a net gain for Republicans over the votes they will keep by leaving him in office!
Bear, try as hard as you like, but Republicans at their very best are enabling, nay, have destroyed a once functioning democracy. It is going to take a lot of work and money to make it function at all now, much less better if the multitude of broken institutions, professionals, lives and alliances are refigured to meet the aspirations of the constitution. It may be impossible.
Our parents did a number on us, generally, instilling values that represented incorrect policies and practices that capitalism, manifest destiny and racism produced in North America. Like generational trauma, our arrogance is going to be pretty damn hard to supplant. Sen Daniel Inouye, on Indian Affairs was an influence, we could use a guide despite his flaws. FDR was much hated by the right (always the right) but served the nation and the world. The right today seeks to “own” Lincoln but shares none of his qualities.
Never having been Republican (a parent died young), perhaps I do not understand. We cannot continue on ANY legitimate road the GOP promotes today. It is a failed party. It cannot be repaired. The trick is going to be, if Dems win, to create a new government, free from corruption. Biden will get us started. Perhaps Sen Harris will become our 1st female president. Humble leaders as these will serve us, We the People, better that the cream of the Republican crop, John Thune and Mitch McConnell who stand by Trump and Steven Miller.
The 400 billionaires that do not understand this can go to hell.
Little Donny Jr. thinks daddy is nuts and he says so. Meantime, Ivanka and Jared keep telling daddy everything is wonderful.
is.gd/NoUqKo
I have long agreed with Dr. Newquist. We have been watching Dear Leader lose his mind incrementally since he took office. In the past year, the pace of his deterioration has increased and really accelerated this summer.
bearcreekbat, you hit on a thought experiment I have been pondering: what will the Trump party (formerly the GOP) be in the post Trump age? What is the step AFTER being a cult of personality?
The dogmatic principals-based movement gave way to the Tea Party/RINO/Social Conservative/Purist movement, which got pushed out of the way for the Trump cult of personality, so what comes next?
Leslie, you hit on something I believe about the Democrat Party, some time – SOON – Democrats need to have candidates that live the social issues, not just represent them. Democrats need the strong black candidates to show Black Lives Matter; Democrats need the strong women candidates to show MeToo is a movement still; Democrats need survivors of the tattered social safety net candidates to show the 99% issues must be addressed . . . The time of the old white man savior (even with the best of intentions) has to be set aside for the voices to be raised up — not just represented. I like Biden, I really do, but I feel like Democrats missed a great opportunity to raise up a new voice, a new face, to speak for what is the core of the US.
O, I think the last paragraph of your comment is exactly right. The Democratic Party needs to BE what it says, from the top down.
Debbo, that is my gripe about Bill (and maybe Hillary) Clinton. He actually paved the way for the 1% to make even bigger grabs of the US economy. NAFTA opened the doors to export workers from US manufacturing. That was the reason the Rust Belt swing states had no allegiance to the Democrats in 2016 and were willing to take a risk with Trump. Democrats had become the other party of the rich.
I was initially a fan of Bill Clinton. As his economic policies wore on, I was less enamored. Then Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, Monica Lewinsky . . . . Yeah. He wasn’t that great.
Let’s listen to Sen. Warren when it comes to economic plans. She’s got it nailed. Her policies will rebuild the middle class, dramatically lessen poverty, go a long way toward equalizing opportunities and end the elitism of the billionaire class. (Imo there should be no such thing as a “billionaire class.”)
You’ve heard about the cowboy/Indian/CPA Dems in the SD legislature. Remy from CRST is running for PUC with a 17 year career at USACOE I believe.
Let’s add to minority power in Pierre. Billy Sutton and Randy Seiler were heavy weights. Paula was great. Susan was great. The list goes on! Voters need to do more than vote in red neck SD!!
Otherwise we get incompetent governor and AG at the same time, during a freaking world pandemic. And the Indians are carrying the weight on climate action ( the greater threat to the planet, you and me). FEARLESSLY
All the rest, economic inequality in every form, is fixable.
This tweet from the guy who actually wrote the book:
“Happily contributed at least $1000 each from Art of Deal royalties to these Senate races: Mike Espy (MS), Sara Gideon (MA), Jamie Harrison (SC), Steve Bullock (MT), Theresa Greenfield (IA) Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock (GA) 16 Democratic congressional candidates.”
[Bwahahahaha!!]
Clinton signed NAFTA. Other than that he had nothing to do with it. It was Hitler Weasel Bush’s baby.
Clinton’s presidency and personal life were not as bad as right wing conspiracies made him out to be. For every molecule of truth they said about Clintons, there was a ton of made up/paid for lies and innuendo about the pair, starting back when Bill was governor of Arkansas.