Howard Stern says he's 'shocked' it took Donald Trump so long to get coronavirus

Radio star compares Amy Coney Barrett ceremony with Jonestown massacre

Howard Stern says he is “shocked” it took Donald Trump so long to test positive for the coronavirus.

The radio personality, a former friend of the president, also took aim at Mr Trump’s “egregious” behaviour during the pandemic.

"I'm shocked it took this long," Mr Stern said on his Monday show on Sirius XM.

"Every time I turn on the TV and see these events they throw, the people are on top of each other and no one is wearing a mask.”

Mr Trump announced on Friday that he and wife Melania had tested positive for the virus and he spent the weekend being treated at Walter Reed.

Mr Stern, who has been working from his home since March, attacked the president’s handling of the pandemic.

“It’s not even the disinterest in the virus, not even the lies about the virus but the disdain for people who are trying to stay alive, the utter disdain for seeing people in their masks and laughing at them,” he said.

“And I'm like, ‘What is going on? What bizzaro universe am I living in?’

"I'm happy to hear on a personal level that Donald is okay. Don't get me wrong.

“I would be sad for him if he died and I would be sad for his family. I’m a human being. I'm compassionate enough to care about everyone, and I'm compassionate enough to care about our country.”

Mr Stern went on to compare the Supreme Court nomination ceremony of Amy Coney Barrett to the Jonestown massacre, in which more than 900 cult members died of mainly self-inflicted cyanide poisoning.

A number of Republicans and administration officials who attended the event in the White House Rose Garden have now contracted the virus.

People at the event sat close together and very few wore masks.

“I'm watching this thing, and it hits me all of a sudden and I start comparing it to Jonestown,” said Mr Stern.

"I'm sitting in my house, I'm wearing masks, I'm quarantining. I say to myself, 'How is it they think they're not going to get Covid?'

“The president's standing there like Jim Jones. It's like hustling people into a room and telling them to drink poison Kool-Aid.

“It's like they're all hypnotised by the cult leader," Stern said.