Things just got even uglier for Donald Trump Jr
Perched atop his high horse, Donald Trump Jr. loves to look down and call people out for things, as if he is the paragon of morality. Last night, for example, he retweeted a New York Post article about how Michael Cohen was “caught” dining at a restaurant while serving his sentence at home due to the coronavirus. That’s very nice, but what about looking closer to home?
Also last night, as Palmer Report told you, the New York Times reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, Don Jr.’s girlfriend, tested positive for COVID-19. It’s bad enough that she was diagnosed after already traveling to Trump’s coronavirus-denying Fourth of July event at Mt. Rushmore where social distancing was socially outlawed and only an eagle eye could spot a mask wearer.
A PageSix.com account of Don Jr. and Guilfoyle’s whereabouts last Saturday evening, published this past Monday, now makes things look worse. The two were among about 100 people partying at a mansion in the Hamptons, which reportedly was held partly indoors. It wasn’t just that the party was packed and that no one wore masks, but, in the words of one attendee, it was “as if COVID had never happened.”
This is fitting because the Trump family loves to pretend there is no pandemic (except, of course, for the moments when their racist urges overtake their denialism and they blame China for “Kung Flu”). Fortunately, Guilfoyle appears to be asymptomatic and there is no evidence so far that she has infected anyone (though it is too early to tell).
Trump’s risky Mt. Rushmore event and Guilfoyle’s diagnosis happened just one day after the United States set a new record of 55,595 new coronavirus cases, according to a New York Times database, with cases increasing 90 percent in the past two weeks. It is clear that neither Donald Trump nor anyone close to him will take off their party hats, unite the country, and galvanize Americans into treating this virus seriously. It is up to us to prevail—not because of Trumpian leadership, but in spite of it.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month