Time will tell whether Trump triumphs over COVID-19

Only Boss Trump could turn supposed to fight all these differeven the COVID-19 plague into ent things, and she can’t make it a farce. His triumphal return 15 feet to her car,” he sneered. to the White House from WalSo after they carried him to the ter Reed National Military Medihospital in a helicopter, the White cal Center — nicely House sent out a photo of Trump timed for the evesupposedly hard at work. “Nothning TV news cycle ing can stop him from working — was like a stunt for the American people,” daughof the herd before disease carhis pal Kim Jong ter Ivanka tweeted. “RELENTried her away. It’s impossible to Un would pull in LESS!” Alas, a closeup showed know.) The most common probPyongyang: Pure Trump relentlessly signing a lems in human subjects are irristrongman street blank sheet of paper. tability, aggression and what the theater. They do these things better in drug label calls “psychotic mani

The big man North Korea. festations.” stood glassy-eyed but indomitaBack when I raised cattle, it And wouldn’t that be wonderble on a balcony: Corset, shoulderful?wasaxiomatic:Neverletasick pads, elevator shoes and a halfcow die without trying dexamethpound of orange stage makeup asone, the powerful steroid that accentuating his extreme virilpersuaded Trump he was 10 feet ity. All the scene lacked was a tall and bulletproof. I’ve seen it laugh track, although in the kinds bring animals too weak to stand of dictatorships Trump most adback to their feet, although not mires, it is forbidden to smile. for long, unless the underlying in

Big, strong me, puny little you. fection had been suppressed. It’s a That was the message. stimulant, not a cure.

It was four years almost to the In humans, dexamethasone day since Trump mimicked Hillalso has psychiatric side effects. ary Clinton stumbling at a cam(In cows, you can’t tell. Possibly paign appearance after being diLayla the abandoned twin calf agnosed with pneumonia. “She’s imagined herself tyrant queen

hat’s more, Trump’s euphoria was not only chemically induced, but it’s also unlikely to last. Repeated doses of dexamethasone can be quite dangerous. It’s administered only in serious circumstances, signifying to physicians who don’t work for the White House that Trump was a whole lot sicker when he went to Walter Reed than anybody wanted to let on.

Then where was the hydroxychloroquine, inquiring minds want to know?

So yes, there’s every chance that Trump will get sicker before he gets better.

(Graham also carried a formidable swag belly, and pretty much invented the elaborate blond pompadour wrestling villains featured back then. Trump basically stole his whole act.)

But I digress. The point is that anybody tempted to heed Boss Trump’s advice — “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your life” — would be welladvised to wait a few weeks before venturing maskless to one of his campaign rallies. We don’t know, in Conley’s words, that he’s out of the woods yet. But we do know that he’s actively contagious.

We also know that Trump cares not at all which Secret Service agents and White House flunkies get infected. Not to mention those anonymous hordes in their MAGA hats and T-shirts.

Meanwhile, Trump acolyte Rudy Giuliani, himself memorably described by Jimmy Breslin as “a small man in search of a balcony,” went on Fox News to mock Joe Biden for wearing a face mask. Not manly, he said between bouts of heavy coughing. Fox Newsblonde Martha MacCallum said she hoped “that cough is not anything bad.”

So have I no humane feelings for Boss Trump, his attendant courtiers and poltroons? I’d answer that I have exactly the same degree of empathy and concern he’d have for me and my loved ones.

I leave it to readers to decide what that might be.

Only Trump could turn even this plague into a farce. His return to the White House was like a stunt his pal Kim Jong Un would pull in Pyongyang: Pure strongman street theater.