[imagesource: Alex Edelman / AFP]

Donald Trump loves being the centre of attention, which is a little tricky when you’re being treated for COVID-19 behind closed doors at the Walter Reed military medical centre in Maryland.

Sure, his condition was being widely covered, but the past few years have shown that Trump enjoys nothing more than appearing in front of a crowd of adoring, MAGA-hat wearing fans.

It doesn’t matter if he has to sanction the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters so that he can have a photo taken in front of a church, and it clearly doesn’t matter if he has a highly infectious disease, either.

Yesterday, the president exited Walter Reed and did a surprise drive-by visit to supporters who had gathered outside Walter Reed, in a move that was instantly criticised by doctors:

At least he’s wearing a mask, right?

Well, that’s not quite enough. Below from the Guardian:

James Phillips, doctor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, who is an attending physician at Walter Reed, called the stunt “insanity”.

“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,” he wrote in a tweet.

“For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

Phillips then followed that up with this tweet:

That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.

— Dr. James P. Phillips, MD (@DrPhillipsMD) October 4, 2020

When you join the Secret Service, I guess you sign up to take a bullet for the president, but you shouldn’t have to sign up for being exposed to a virus because a tiny ego needs a little boosting.

Other medical experts were also highly critical of Trump. Here’s Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University school of medicine and health services:

By taking a joy ride outside Walter Reed the president is placing his Secret Service detail at grave risk. In the hospital when we go into close contact with a COVID patient we dress in full PPE: Gown, gloves, N95, eye protection, hat. This is the height of irresponsibility.

— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) October 4, 2020

What makes Trump’s drive-by all the more irresponsible is the fact that a White House official told reporters earlier in the weekend that Melania Trump, who also tested positive for COVID-19, would stay in her residence to quarantine because leaving would “expose the agents who would drive her there [to Walter Reed] and the medical staff who would walk her up to him [Trump]”.

(Sure, with the added bonus that Melania doesn’t have to pretend to be happy to see her husband thrown in.)

The risks of Secret Service agents travelling in such close proximity with Melania to visit her husband is a no-go, but the president can do the same in order to wave at supporters?

Secret Service agents have not been impressed with POTUS in recent times, reports the Washington Post:

Secret Service agents expressed their anger and frustration to colleagues and friends Friday, saying that the president’s actions have repeatedly put them at risk. “He’s never cared about us,” one agent told a confidant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal reaction.

Former Secret Service agents said it was unheard of for agents to openly complain about their president but that some currently in the ranks had become convinced during the pandemic that Trump was willing to put his protectors in harm’s way.

Agents who work in field offices around the country complained that since late August, they are no longer being tested when they return home from working at a rally for the president.

“This administration doesn’t care about the Secret Service,” one current agent relayed in an internal discussion group. “It’s so obvious.”

Has been for decades, really.

Another example of this would be a video posted to Trump’s Twitter account late last night South African time.

In the video, Trump says that in the past few days he’s gone on “a very interesting journey” where he learned a lot about Covid-19 by going to the “real school” and not the “read the book school”:

pic.twitter.com/0Bm9W2u1x7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2020

More than 210 000 Americans have died from COVID-19, countless experts have told him for months about the dangers the virus presents, and it’s only when he gets it himself that he is willing to learn.

[sources:guardian&washpost]