Trump was personally terrified of Covid and thought Boris Johnson was going to die, new book claims

‘We saw two very different Donald Trumps in our reporting’

(Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump believed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was going to die after the latter contracted Covid-19, and privately thought the disease was much more dangerous than he let on publicly, according to a new book.

The authors of Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, journalists Yasmine Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, of The Washington Post, made the revelation during an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday.

Speaking with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Mr Paletta explained how two sides of Mr Trump emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

“We saw two very different Donald Trumps in our reporting. One was the one who was very cavalier, you know, kind of it was all going to be fine, I’m not worried about it, we’re going to reopen by Easter,” said Mr Paletta.

“And then there was the other one, the germophobe Donald Trump who was incredibly scared of this virus,” he continued, adding: “When he was told [by] aides in the Oval Office that Boris Johnson had coronavirus and was being taken to the hospital, he thought Boris Johnson was going to die. He said, ‘I have friends who had been put on ventilators and they don’t come out’.”

Mr Trump himself would later be infected with the virus, along with first lady Melania Trump, after a White House event celebrating the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court turned into a superspreader event, with numerous White House officials, press, and invited guests coming down with Covid-19 after it was held.

Mr Johnson tested positive for Covid-19 in the spring of 2020, and was later hospitalised as a result of the disease. Following his release, he said that NHS doctors had saved his life.

“I have today left the hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question,” said the prime minister last April, adding: “It’s hard to find words to express my debt.”

The urge to publicly minimise the danger presented by the Covid-19 pandemic would eventually lead to the White House superspreader event, as well as other incidents in which Mr Trump and his allies were criticised for not taking proper precautions to prevent the virus’s spread at their campaign and White House events.

Most notably, former GOP presidential contender Herman Cain died from Covid-19 after testing positive for the virus nine days following his attendance at a tightly-packed indoor rally for the president’s reelection campaign in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“He was worried about himself getting sick, but he didn’t want to take any measures that would have necessarily protected Americans, especially as the second half of the year, you know, got going,” Mr Paletta said on MSNBC.

The US has now seen more than 33 million cases of the virus, and more than 600,000 have died from symptoms brought on by Covid-19 across the country. Both numbers are higher than official counts in any other country.