Guys, we are getting perilously close to Howard Hughes level of paranoia and germaphobia. Towards the end of his life, Hughes spent most of his time laying in bed in darkened hotel rooms, he wore tissue boxes on his feet and he burned his clothes if someone near him was sick. Are we close to this sort of meltdown? If reports are true, we may be getting there.
Gabriel Sherman (Vanity Fair) put out a very disturbing report today that showed just how deep Trump's paranoia is getting. Reports are that Trump thought he could control the coronavirus story with his typical lies, deception and bluster. Seeing his typical methods of disinformation be battered by evidence and science has deeply angered and panicked him. He needs a person to attack. Germs can't be attacked. They can't be belittled via tweet. They do not even have a Twitter account!
A former West Wing staffer told Sherman: “He is trying to control the narrative and he can’t."
Trump still continues to tweet his feelings. Mainly about how great the stock market is and how low the number of infected are (because he won't test anyone, but that is besides the point). He continues to be angry that his staff aren't controlling the news cycle more. Larry Kudlow isn't calming the markets enough for him. Kellyanne Conway can't get her Alternative Facts straight.Trump himself can't even get his stories straight.
Trump even told aides that he’s "afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One", which is beyond bananas. This would require someone to INTENTIONALLY infect themselves or get infected accidentally and then intentionally go into work, thereby infecting not only Donald Trump, but all the White House staff and other pool reporters. I do not know anyone that hates Donald Trump enough to actually do that.
Twitter had...thoughts:
In reality Donald Trump will most likely get the CPAC coronavirus from one of his GOP sycophants. Period.