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If Wikipedia Were Honest: Donald Trump
A profile of America's greatest conman.
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946)–also known by the aliases John Barron, John Miller, and David Denison—is the former villainous star of reality TV show The Apprentice and current villainous star of actual reality.
Elected to the presidency of the United States—against the popular will of the voting public—by a vestige of America's history as a nation fueled by slavery, he has declared himself "the least racist person there is anywhere in the world."
<p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script></p><p>Despite this apparent obstacle, Trump has managed to win over an overwhelming majority of America's thriving racist community by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/13/politics/katie-mchugh-stephen-miller/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">surrounding himself with white supremacists</a>, <a href="https://www.popdust.com/who-are-the-proud-boys-the-extremist-group-trump-told-to-stand-by-2647871553.html" target="_self">refusing to condemn hate groups</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/14/trump-tells-progressive-congresswomen-to-go-back-to-where-they-came-from.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dog whistling so loudly Old Yeller can hear it</a>, and <a href="https://www.libertyproject.com/aoc-concentration-camps-2638934189.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">putting young children in concentration camps for months</a> while prosecuting their parents for committing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2584b7cbfc4948cd9b828df0c1161a57" target="_blank">a misdemeanor</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2c4c3ec66c1e70b0dc3180c991fa3bc4"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VFJzKmdldos?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">How Trump's Family Separation Traumatized Children</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFJzKmdldos" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><h4>Career<br></h4><p>Known for his catchphrases, "You're fired!" and "When you're a star, they let you do it," Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/09/29/495955920/donald-trump-plagued-by-decades-old-housing-discrimination-case" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first captured the attention of federal investigators in 1973</a> for systemic discrimination against Black prospective tenants at one of his housing developments. Under noted bleeding-heart liberal Richard Nixon, the Justice Department sued Trump and his father for refusing to rent to Black Tenants.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-143"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p>Since that early highlight, Donald Trump has gone on to have an impressive career as the target of numerous federal investigations for everything from tax evasion to insurance fraud to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-university-its-worse-than-you-think" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">running a sham "university"</a> and (possibly) colluding with a foreign power to undermine American "democracy."</p><p>Having inherited a huge portion of his wealth from his real estate mogul father—<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/3/17934360/trump-taxes-illegal-new-york-times-expose" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a sum dramatically increased by dodging estate taxes</a>—the money Donald Trump has "earned" has been based mostly on his reputation as a famous rich guy.</p><p>It's that reputation as a brash "billionaire" who can turn s**t to gold that has allowed him to repeatedly turn gold to s**t, accruing <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-business-failures-were-very-real" target="_blank">numerous bankruptcies</a>, endless scandals, and unfathomable levels of debt, all while building lifelong ties to organized crime, global oligarchs, and the shadiest figures in American politics—from <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Roy Cohn</a> to <a href="https://qz.com/1533796/roger-stone-and-donald-trumps-complicated-30-year-history/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Roger Stone</a>.</p><p>But, perhaps most importantly, that reputation earned Trump opportunities for media attention, which he craves above all else. That's how he ended up with <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1544081-donald-trump-to-be-inducted-into-wwe-hall-of-fame" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a place in the WWE hall of fame</a>, a cameo appearance in <em>Home Alone 2: Lost in New York</em>, and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/back-to-the-future-writer-biff-is-donald-trump-190408/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a starring role as Biff Tannen in </a><em><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/back-to-the-future-writer-biff-is-donald-trump-190408/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Back to the Future Part II</a> [<em>citation needed</em>]</em>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3c5c57f407f4f8fa61c34b3e8a6e6f65"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YNvR5HwsBEc?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Was Donald Trump in Back to the Future?</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNvR5HwsBEc" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-145"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent3 - longer_content --></p><p>It's how Donald Trump ended up with his own reality show, where editors worked tirelessly to add an air of business competence to his rich assh**e mystique. And it's why in 2011—amid <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/08/mitt-romney-running-government-as-business" target="_blank">calls for the government to be "run like a business"</a>—anyone cared to listen to "businessman" <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html" target="_blank">Donald Trump's baseless, racist suggestion</a> that Barack Obama wasn't really born in Hawaii.<br></p><p>And it was that birther ordeal that led inevitably to Trump's ascension as a political figure, to the Trump presidency, and to the apocalypse circling overhead as America's pathetic, depleted husk crawls further into the lifeless expanse of the future.</p><p>Among Trump's most notable life achievements, apart from becoming the most powerful manchild on Earth, are his failed casino ventures—including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-trump-bankrupted-the-taj-mahal-2017-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the spectacular financial collapse of Trump Taj Mahal</a>—and his charity foundation that was shut down for illegal misuse of funds.</p><p>He also has some real estate ventures that involve plastering his name on buildings...<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/places-that-have-removed-trump-name-rink-hotels-apartment-buildings" target="_blank">until the actual owners decide it's too embarrassing</a>. </p><h4>Early Life</h4><p><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/2016-donald-trump-brutal-worldview-father-coach-213750" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump was raised by his father, Fred Trump</a>, to believe that there were two kinds of people in the world: killers and losers. Despite a lifetime of losing business ventures, <a href="https://qz.com/1624577/cohen-details-trumps-tortured-relationship-with-don-jr-in-new-testimony/" target="_blank">disappointing children</a> (with the exception of Ivanka, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ivanka-trump-creepiest-most-unsettling-comments-roundup-a7353876.html" target="_blank">whom he repeatedly "jokes" about wanting to sleep with</a>), and failed tabloid marriages, Donald Trump finally secured his position as a killer in his 70s by <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/21497221/donald-trump-covid-19-coronavirus-news-misinformation-study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">spreading confusion and misinformation about the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic</a> while failing to take necessary precautions, thus <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/briefing/coronavirus-kenosha-massachusetts-your-tuesday-briefing.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans</a>.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-147"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent4 - longest_content --></p><p>As a child, <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/donald-trump-2016-norman-vincent-peale-213220" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Donald Trump was instructed in "Christianity" by pastor Norman Vincent Peale</a>, who preached that wealth and success are signs of God's love, and both can be achieved through positive thinking. Donald Trump has held onto this idea by banishing negative thoughts like, "You are unqualified," "You don't know what you're talking about," and, "You're not the only person in the world who matters."</p><h4>Personal Life</h4><p>As an adult, Donald Trump extended this absence of doubt and self-criticism to his romantic life by not allowing himself to be constrained by vows of commitment, a lack of consent, or basic human decency. In the case of his first wife, Ivana, Donald Trump deliberately spread tabloid stories about his affair with a younger woman (future ex-wife Marla Maples), and—<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/53n7w3/he-raped-me-when-donald-trump-was-accused-of-sexual-assault" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Ivana Trump's own court testimony</a>—once raped her as an act of vengeance after an unpleasant experience with a scalp surgery intended to conceal his baldness.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal speaks about alleged affair with Trump</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrZz48lwW3Y" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>In addition to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12" target="_blank">dozens of other accusations of sexual misconduct</a>—from unwanted kissing to further allegations of rape—Donald Trump reportedly had affairs with adult film star Stormy Daniels while his third wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with their son, Barron Trump, and with <em>Playboy</em> model Karen McDougal shortly after Melania gave birth. Donald Trump is also <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/why-christians-support-trump/613669/" target="_blank">the preferred candidate of Christian, "family values" voters</a>.<br></p><h4>International Relations</h4><p>In late 2013, Donald Trump visited Moscow in connection with the Miss Universe pageant, which he owned at the time. An offer was reportedly made to send five sex workers to Donald Trump's hotel room, but <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bodyguard-testifies-russian-offered-trump-women-was-turned-down-n819386" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Keith Schiller—Trump's personal bodyguard at the time—claims that he rejected the offer</a> before going to bed with no knowledge about whether anyone entered Donald Trump's hotel room.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/pee-tape-trump-mueller-report-823755/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">evidence is inconclusive</a> as to whether Donald Trump did in fact have multiple women in his hotel room that night—and <a href="https://www.theroot.com/report-donald-trump-hired-prostitutes-to-pee-in-beds-h-1791134341" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">instructed them to pee on a mattress that the Obamas slept on during a state visit</a>.</p><p>It is also unclear whether Donald Trump—who was actively assisted in 2016 by a Russian disinformation effort and who <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/29/21493319/trump-russia-if-youre-listening-comments-rewrite-history" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">openly asked Russia to perform a cyberattack against Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign</a>—is actually subject to the whims of his good friend <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/427505-trump-putin-talked-at-g20-without-us-translator-note-taker-report" target="_blank">Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump loves to have private meetings</a>.</p><p>We may never know if the Russian government is using compromising materials—possibly including a tape of sex workers peeing on a mattress at Trump's behest—to gain leverage over Trump in order to receive <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2019-10-23/trumps-gift-putin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a startling series of foreign policy wins</a>.</p><p></p><p>By contrast, there's a ton of damning evidence that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-23/mueller-failed-to-follow-trump-s-money-trail" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump and his associates are tied up in international money laundering schemes</a> involving oligarchs from Russia and elsewhere.</p><p>In September of 2020 it was revealed that Donald Trump paid just $750 in income tax in both 2016 and 2017, while claiming <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/28/hairstyling-donald-trump-taxes-numbers-us-president-finances" target="_blank">jaw-dropping deductions such as $70,000 for hair styling</a>. But as Donald Trump put it in a 2016 debate, when Hillary Clinton confronted him about his tax evasion, "That makes me smart." Less indicative of intelligence are the loans that have him <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/trump-could-be-more-than-1-billion-in-debt--thats-a-national-security-risk-experts-say/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on the hook for over a billion dollars to various international banks</a> who therefore have substantial power to influence the American government.</p><h4>COVID-19 Diagnosis</h4><p>In October of 2020 <a href="https://www.popdust.com/trump-coronavirus-2647889016.html" target="_self">Donald Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19</a> in an event that was lauded by Popdust.com as "maybe the purest example of karma ever."</p><p>Many predicted that Donald Trump was at particular risk from the disease—and was <a href="https://time.com/5896274/trump-covid-19-treatments/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">placed on supplemental oxygen as well as an aggressive regime of experimental medicines</a>, suggesting a severe case. However, he soon addressed his supporters—claiming that he was feeling <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/08/president-trump-says-hes-not-contagious-at-all-days-after-leaving-hospital-with-coronavirus-.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"better than I did 20 years ago,"</a> and was not contagious—and said of the virus, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/us/covid-trump-angry-families-trnd/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"Don't let it dominate your life."</a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2fd0c7a1f9e34a07f0975e642dbf644c"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mMQ_R-L4TQQ?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Mad Max Fury Road Immortan Joe Speech</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQ_R-L4TQQ" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>Reports vary as to whether <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQ_R-L4TQQ" target="_blank">Trump then added</a>, "Do not, my friends, become addicted to Oxygen. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!"<br></p><h4>2020 Reelection Campaign</h4><p>Donald Trump is running for reelection against Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and considering the resources available to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-campaign-2020-voter-suppression-consent-decree-1028988/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cheat and suppress the vote</a>—and <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/06/how-trump-could-be-prosecuted-after-the-white-house-227050" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the likelihood that he will face prosecution if he loses</a>—it remains a distinct possibility that he will defy the polls and win.</p><h2></h2><p>If he succeeds, opportunities to <a href="https://www.libertyproject.com/climate-change-death-of-hope-2647569435.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">avert climate disaster</a> or revive any <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/america-is-not-a-democracy/550931/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">semblance of democracy in America</a> are likely to never return.</p>
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Why Donald Trump Is (Maybe) Lying About Having COVID
At his point, anything could be true...
In the early hours of Friday morning, the White House announced that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19.
The news came shortly after it was confirmed that top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive after weeks of travellng with the president to campaign events. As a result, Trump's reelection campaign has canceled a number of upcoming campaign events in battleground states.
<p>The idea of a sitting president contracting a life-threatening virus around a month before the 2020 election seems like the definition of a so-called "October surprise." But honestly, Donald Trump's reckless behavior in recent weeks—holding public rallies around the country, including a crowded indoor event in Henderson Nevada—makes his diagnosis substantially less surprising.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-141"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent1 - mid_content --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">President Donald Trump said to have minor Covid-19 symptoms: New York Times report</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV_zCN-4awc" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>Of course, during Tuesday night's debate, Joe Biden expressed concern about that exact issue, noting that the president has "been totally irresponsible in the way in which he has handled the social distancing ... basically encouraging people not to [wear face masks]" at these events.</p><p>Trump, of course, responded by mocking Joe Biden for wearing "the biggest mask I've ever seen" and insisted that—in terms of his rallies and the risk of spreading COVID—"so far we have had no problem whatsoever." <strong>Less than 24 hours later, Donald Trump was at yet another rally in Duluth, Minnesota, where unmasked people were standing shoulder to shoulder</strong>.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-143"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script></p><p>Leaving aside the fact that Trump's "great friend" <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-cain/herman-cain-ex-presidential-candidate-who-refused-to-wear-mask-dies-after-covid-19-diagnosis-idUSKCN24V2OD" target="_blank">Herman Cain tested positive for COVID-19</a> just nine days after attending Donald Trump's Tulsa rally without wearing a face mask—dying soon after—and the fact that the state of <a href="https://time.com/5865890/oklahoma-covid-19-trump-tulsa-rally/" target="_blank">Oklahoma saw a massive spike of COVID cases</a> in the weeks following the event, it should finally be impossible for Trump to claim they've had "no problem."<span></span></p><p>That said, with an incubation period of up to 14 days, it would be unlikely—if Hope Hicks and the president had contracted COVID-19 in Duluth on Wednesday—for a test to come back positive so quickly. But that was the fourth rally the campaign has held in the past two weeks. Either of them might have been exposed in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Florida.</p><p>But all of this ignores one confounding possibility—that this whole story might be just another Trump lie.</p><h4>The Case Against COVID</h4><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/trump-responds-scandal-manipulating-news-cycle/578221/" target="_blank">Donald Trump has made it a regular practice</a> to introduce some major disruptive news any time a negative story about him is dominating the cycle. Often that includes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/donald-trump-20000-false-or-misleading-claims" target="_blank">outright lies</a>.</p><p>For the last few days, the story of "the worst debate ever"—mainly the result of Donald Trump constantly interrupting and talking over both his opponent and the debate moderator—has been all cable news wants to talk about. <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/fox-and-friends-host-brian-kilmeade-says-trump-ruined-the-biggest-layup-in-the-history-of-debates-video/ar-BB19zrUt" target="_blank">Even Brian Kilmeade—among Tump's biggest fans at<em> Fox News</em>—has expressed some criticism of the president's performance</a>. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-145"></div>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">'Dumpster fire': See Jake Tapper and Dana Bash's blunt reaction to debate</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKys4M-bi9g" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>With the election so near, Donald Trump and his team have made it clear that no tactic is too deceptive or underhanded for them to employ if they think it will help him win<strong>. So if Trump wanted to disrupt the continued analysis of that awful debate, what are the potential advantages of faking a COVID diagnosis?</strong></p><p>For a start, now that he is reportedly ill and faces potentially dire health consequences, any criticism of how he has mishandled the pandemic (including this article) will be easy for his defenders to characterize as cruel politicization of the president's health.</p><p>It delivers a more or less guaranteed opportunity to demonize the media—one of Donald Trump's favorite methods for energizing his base—while also ensuring more neutral/positive coverage than he has gotten in recent days. If it works well enough, it might even provide enough media cover for the senate to push through Amy Coney Barrett's controversial nomination to the Supreme Court.<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-147"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent4 - longest_content --></p><p>It could also rewrite the debate schedule. The second debate was originally planned for October 15th and will almost certainly be postponed or canceled. Maybe president Trump only wants to have one more debate. If he has a plan to come back from the disastrous first performance with some surprising tactics in one final debate—currently scheduled for October 22nd—Joe Biden will have no third round in which to adjust and counter.</p><p></p><p>Maybe he's planning to pivot—<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-speech-backstory-235552" target="_blank">yet again</a>—to a more disciplined and presidential poise, so that if Biden comes looking for a similar fight, he will instead come across as the combative one. If President Trump returns to the debate stage with a subdued performance, as though he's been humbled by a brush with his own mortality, perhaps he can win back some polite suburban voters who may have been turned off by his bullying debate style—though somehow not by every other aspect of his presidency.</p><p>Another advantage of faking a COVID diagnosis would be the opportunity to promote a supposed cure. If Trump claims that he took <a href="https://www.popdust.com/fake-coronavirus-cure-2646599278.html?rebelltitem=3" target="_blank">Chloroquine—or some other unproven treatment</a>—after his diagnosis, and thus experienced only mild symptoms, he gets another chance to tout a "cure" that will soon have this global pandemic under control and the economy back on track. Even better, he can "brag" about how mild his illness was for him—painting himself as tough and healthy and affording another opening to attack Biden's fitness.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1NTY1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzgzMDE4NH0.aL2zg7P1kabDfu3i4gOWsuYbVln1UXd8zY2ah99uYgo/img.jpg?width=980" id="e091f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b7b2fe9dc18f2953a619c1b0c1401c84" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Trump Bolsonaro">
</p><p>This is roughly the approach that fascist Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro—one of Trump's closest international allies—took when he (possibly) contracted the coronavirus back in July. He was out shaking his supporters' hands and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-coronavirus-taking-hydroxychloroquine-2020-7" target="_blank">promoting hydroxychloroquine</a> amid <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/how-jair-bolsonaros-son-eduardo-confirmed-his-fathers-positive-coronavirus-test-to-fox-news-then-lied-about-it/" target="_blank">conflicting reports about his diagnosis</a>. Was it all a ruse? Is Trump following the same game plan?<br></p><h4>On the Other Hand...</h4><p>Of course, none of this is to say that President Trump definitely doesn't have COVID. It's a highly contagious virus, and his reckless behavior has put him at significant risk.</p><p>While there may be tactical benefits to faking a COVID diagnosis, there's a lot of room for downsides as well—potentially inspiring his base to reconsider the threat of the virus and the value of the kind of strict lockdown procedures that could have prevented much of the pandemic's impact in the US. If they start having those thoughts, maybe it won't make so much sense to demonize liberal politicians for shutting things down while <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/forecasting-us.html" target="_blank">hundreds of thousands of Americans are dying</a>...</p><p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script></p><p>That scenario may seem like a stretch—Trump's base is far more likely to attribute this kind of news to a Chinese conspiracy to infect their hero than to any GOP incompetence—but the point remains that news of this magnitude shifts the political narrative in unpredictable ways. Would Trump and his campaign really take the risk of faking something like this, even with the chance that it could turn against them?</p><h2></h2><p>Who knows? Whatever the arguments on one side or the other, the biggest reasons to question this story—and invest in all this conspiracy theory-logic—are the same reasons we should have learned by now to doubt nearly everything: We can't trust Trump, and we can't trust 2020.</p>
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