A few days ago I predicted that Trump, almost definitely infected with the coronavirus, would be dead by before the election. I wasn't wishing it on him, just predicting the likely result of his behavior. Yesterday, the Washington Post reported the Florida's GOP congressional delegation is mostly in quarantine, suspected of having gotten coronavirus at Trump's West Palm Beach disease-ridden fecal swamp, "as the number of people who visited Mar-a-Lago last weekend and later tested positive for the virus climbed to three. The latest is a Brazilian ambassador who sat at President Trump’s table during a dinner. Meanwhile, Trump has declined to self-isolate or be tested for the novel coronavirus, according to a letter from his White House doctor, after the president said at a news conference Friday he might be tested."Though Apple has shut down all their retail stores and the Pentagon has "announced new domestic travel restrictions for service members and their families to help contain the outbreak, saying in a memo that virtually all trips must be put on hold through May 11," Trump continues "breaking every rule in the CDC's 450-page playbook" for the pandemic. The clownish "White House doctor said in a memo that Trump would not be tested for the virus, despite his interaction with the two people with confirmed infections and that others who interacted with the same individuals had voluntarily self-quarantined."
At his news conference Friday afternoon, Trump, after being asked several times, relented to say he’d “most likely” get tested “fairly soon.” But a memo later came from Sean P. Conley, the White House doctor, who wrote: “The President’s exposure to the first individual was extremely limited (photograph, handshake), and though he spent more time in close proximity to the second case, all interactions occurred before any symptom onset.“These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per CDC guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time,” Conley added.The doctor said he would be monitoring Trump, but unless the president exhibits symptoms he will not need to be tested.Conley’s advice is in direct conflict with that of Anthony S. Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director, who has said if anyone who comes in contact with an infected person, they should isolate themselves.On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted: “SOCIAL DISTANCING,” after backslapping and handshaking people during his televised news conference the day before.
Friday night Guatemala announced that it is fighting the spread of the coronavirus by banning Americans. President Alejandro Giammattei: "We have made the decision that citizens of the United States and Canada cannot enter the country" as of Monday. There's some irony there in that last year, more than 250,000 Guatemalans were detained at the U.S. border, more than from any other country.The Times' Peter Baker and Katie Rogers went into how Mar-A-Lago has become a Coronavirus Hot Spot. It started becoming apparent after the 51st birthday party for Don Jr's girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle (the former wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom). "It was," they wrote, "a lavish, festive, carefree evening at Mar-a-Lago a week ago Saturday in what in hindsight now seems like a last hurrah for the end of one era and the beginning of another. In the days since then, the presidential estate in Florida has become something of a coronavirus hot zone. At least four Mar-a-Lago guests from last weekend have said they are infected and others have put themselves into quarantine." All the Trumps are refusing to get tested and are likely spreading the disease to everyone they come in contact with and "the Mar-a-Lago petri dish has become a kind of metaphor for the perils of group gatherings in the age of coronavirus, demonstrating how quickly and silently the virus can spread. No one is necessarily safe from encountering it, not senators or diplomats or even the most powerful person on the planet seemingly secure in a veritable fortress surrounded by Secret Service agents."
Some of last weekend’s guests worried it may be a sign of the times and the last party of its sort for a while at Mar-a-Lago. “I hope not,” Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, wrote in a text message. “Humans interacting with one another are typically happier and more productive in my experience.”Mr. Gaetz’s experience is a cautionary tale. He attended events at Mar-a-Lago on both Friday and Saturday nights of that first weekend in March, not realizing that he had already been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus at an earlier political event. Only last Monday, as he rode with Mr. Trump on Air Force One back to Washington was he told of the encounter, at which point he was separated from the president and other passengers on the plane and later went into self-quarantine. He has since tested negative and reports feeling fine.At least four others at Mar-a-Lago that weekend have since tested positive, including three who accompanied President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil for a dinner with Mr. Trump before Ms. Guilfoyle’s birthday party that Saturday night: Fabio Wajngarten, his press secretary, Nestor Forster, his top diplomat in Washington, and Nelsinho Trad, a senator. A fourth member of the Brazilian delegation, Karina Kufa, a lawyer, also tested positive but she had not been at Mar-a-Lago. Another unidentified person at Mar-a-Lago the next day for a fund-raising brunch with the president has also tested positive.Mr. Bolsonaro said Friday that he tested negative, but the health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, later said the president would be tested again as a precaution. Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, who met with Mr. Bolsonaro while he was in town, reported on Friday that he had tested positive.While he has been described as nervous in private, Mr. Trump has publicly insisted he had no concerns even after a photograph emerged on social media showing him with Mr. Wajngarten.“I have no idea who he is, but I take pictures and it lasts for, literally, seconds,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday. “I take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day,” he added, “and that night I was taking hundreds of pictures. So I just don’t know. Now I did sit with the president for probably two hours, but he has tested negative. So that’s good.”Only afterward did the report about Mr. Forster emerge. Mr. Forster had sat at the table with Mr. Trump, suggesting a more prolonged exposure. In the statement released by the White House shortly before midnight on Friday, Cmdr. Sean P. Conley, the president’s physician, said he would monitor the president after his encounters with the infected Brazilians.“The president’s exposure to the first individual was extremely limited (photograph, handshake), and though he spent more time in closer proximity to the second case, all interactions occurred before any symptom onset,” Commander Conley wrote. “These interactions would be categorized as LOW risk for transmission per C.D.C. guidelines, and as such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time.“Additionally,” he added, “given the president himself remains without symptoms, testing for COVID-19 is not currently indicated.”Hours later, Trump and his doctor made up a lie that Trump has already tested negative for COVID-19Since the start of Mr. Trump’s presidency, supporters and hanger-ons have gravitated to Mar-a-Lago, paying up to $200,000 for membership in the club-- and for proximity to the president. Mr. Trump frequently holds court on the patio at dinnertime, shaking hands with members and waving them over to his table.But the club has been criticized for lax security practices. Last year, a Chinese woman carrying a malware-laced device made it onto the grounds before she was arrested, prompting a rare admonishment from the Secret Service, which effectively blamed the club for porous admission policies.Despite the coronavirus, the president has not changed his practice of greeting guests at the club, according to a member. Mr. Trump believes his willingness to shake hands and connect with supporters helped propel him into office and the club’s unwritten rule is that those who love him or trade on connections with him can come into contact with him.This rule was on display last weekend in the club’s ballroom, when the president hosted both Mr. Bolsonaro for dinner and the extended Trump family for Ms. Guilfoyle’s birthday, the two events overlapping to some extent. As Mr. Trump escorted Mr. Bolsonaro into the club, a reporter asked if newly reported coronavirus cases in the Washington area made him worry that it was getting closer to the White House.“No,” he said with Mr. Bolsonaro at his side, “I’m not concerned at all.”And then the two went inside.Among the guests on hand was a who’s who of Mr. Trump’s world, according to pictures and video posted on social media, including Vice President Mike Pence, the president’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner recently pardoned by Mr. Trump.In addition to Donald Trump Jr. and Ms. Guilfoyle, there were other family members on hand, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, and Tiffany Trump. Melania Trump did not make the trip to Florida. Mr. Bolsonaro took photos with the president and others, including Mr. Pence and Mr. Giuliani. “We’re going to have a nice dinner,” Mr. Trump said as he introduced the Brazilian president to Ivanka Trump and Mr. Carlson.As it happens, Mr. Carlson was concerned that the president was not taking the coronavirus seriously enough and talked with him about it during the evening, according to a person informed about the conversation. Two days later, on his Fox show, Mr. Carlson warned viewers: “People you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem.”But the mood otherwise that Saturday night was light. Ms. Guilfoyle, wearing a thigh-hugging gold sequin dress and set to turn 50 two days later, was toasted by one member of the Trump family after another amid purple and pink lighting suffusing the room.“You work so hard for the president,” Ivanka Trump told her. “It’s been amazing to get to know you,” Mr. Kushner added. Mr. Graham told her that “you represent everything Bernie Sanders hates” and promised to get her a tax cut. With a D.J. playing music, the guests danced a conga line and enjoyed the evening.
