Hoping for first couple’s quick recovery
News that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania have contracted COVID19 has been met with shock, sympathy and sadly glee in some quarters.
As of Friday morning, the president reported experiencing “mild symptoms,” just hours after disclosing that he and the first lady tested positive for this novel virus.
The president’s physician said in a memo that Trump — who’s exhibited only mild symptoms — and the first lady, 50, “are both well at this time” and “plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.” Their son Barron, who lives at the White House, tested negative.
Vice President Mike Pence tested negative Friday morning and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.
The president, 74, and clinically obese, is at a higher risk of serious complications from the virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide and responsible for more than 200,000 deaths in this country
Most politicians and world leaders usually put their differences aside in times of like these, and that’s what generally has occurred in this case.
Presidential rival Joe Biden offered his prayers for the first couple in a tweet: “Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”
World leaders also were quick to weigh in with words of sympathy.
On Twitter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he and wife Sophie sent their best wishes and hoped for the first couple’s speedy recovery.
“I hope that your inherent vitality, good spirits and optimism will help you cope with the dangerous virus,” Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in a direct message to Trump released by the Kremlin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was hospitalized for a week in April after he contracted COVID-19, wished Trump a “speedy recovery.”
Even one of the president’s fiercest critics wished him well.
“God bless the president and the first lady,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow tweeted. “If you pray, please pray for their speedy and complete recovery — and for everyone infected, everywhere.”
However, these conciliatory gestures didn’t extend to the radical element of the Democratic Party.
That includes U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Minn., one of the progressive “Squad” of first-term congresswomen who has repeatedly lambasted Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
She tweeted this at the news: “He still won’t wear a mask. He only cares about himself and his life, NOT those around him or the people he took an oath to protect. Too many lives lost because of his deadly lies.”
Unfortunately, we wouldn’t expect any less from Tlaib and her contemptible crew.
On a political and practical level, Trump’s diagnosis throws a cloak of uncertainly over the presidential campaign, just a month before the election. With the president now in quarantine, it’s likely he’ll be off the campaign trail for at least two weeks and maybe longer.
That puts the remaining presidential debates, scheduled for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, in doubt, as well as the vicepresidential debate on Oct. 7.
It doesn’t mean we won’t be hearing from Trump. We’re sure that if he feels up to it, he’ll still get his campaign message across on Twitter. We trust that the vast majority of the American people, no matter their politics, will rally around the president in this time of crisis, and not gloat over some perceived comeuppance for his sometime dismissive attitude about the coronavirus and the opinions of his top public-health advisers.
It’s in the best interests of everyone — here and around the globe — for the leader of the free world to quickly put this COVID-19 bout behind him.
That’s why we should all wish the first couple a speedy and complete recovery.