What do you think the chances are that Trump doesn’t have covid and it’s a hoax to make him look super human to his supporters by beating the disease and confirming it was no big deal like he’s always said?

I am so tired.

Unlikely, and I’m glad to see so many people pointing out the reasons.

But we can probably all admit our first thought was to wonder what kind of con he’s pulling this time, and that should make us very seriously consider how we hold liars and cheats accountable in this country.

It’s a common refrain that “all politicians lie”, but if you think about it and look back, that’s not true. We expect politicians to hedge, but it wasn’t long ago that being caught in anything that was definitely a lie, especially a relevant one, could seriously damage a politicians career.

But in order to hold politicians or anyone else accountable, we need to start being honest as a populace about when they are and are not lying, cheating, and stealing.

Extremely unlikely. Hope Hicks came down with it first. If this were a hoax it would take a lot of planning, which Trump isn’t able to do. It would also require a bunch of people in the conspiracy to be silent, and that doesn’t happen in the Trump White House. Then you have to compare how he would react if he was making it up to how he is. He would be trying to drum up sympathy for himself if this was planned. The relative radio silence proves that he doesn’t know how the public will feel about it, at least not yet, which means that this wasn’t planned.

it’s rather far fetched for little gain imo.

did Boris Johnson’s infection get him much support?

Chances that he doesn’t really have it? I’d give it 50-50, but not to make him look superhuman.

Much more likely that it’s just him changing the conversation. Since the story about him being infected came out, nobody is talking about his disastrous, losing debate performance anymore: they’re talking about him being infected. Controlling the narrative is an obsession with him.

Also, this story sets him up to:

1. repeat his lying claim that covid-19 isn’t deadly;

2. claim he cured it with some bullshit quack cure (a la Bolsonaro);

3. claim that the “dEeP sTaTe” infected him.

But mostly, I think he’s just controlling the narrative. He lost the debate badly and doesn’t want us talking about that.