What if Donald Trump really does have the coronavirus?

| 5:01 am EDT March 8, 2020
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Last night the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump shook hands with Matt Schlapp on the final day of the CPAC conference, and that at some point during the conference, Schlapp had interacted with an attendee who has since tested positive for coronavirus. This has raised all kinds of questions. Not the least of which is, now what?

To be clear, Schlapp has definitely been exposed to the virus, and Trump has potentially exposed to the virus, but it doesn’t mean that either one of them has it. They both need to be tested, and for the sake of the common good, we hope that’s already happening. But what if Trump does have the coronavirus? Then what do we do?

For starters, if he does have the coronavirus, he’s now on day eight since he was infected. Experts say the symptoms can take five to fourteen days to show up. So if Trump has it, he’ll be sick soon, if he isn’t already. What then? Will he disappear from public view? Will he stubbornly try to make public appearances while pretending he’s not ill? If he were heading into a coma, would be be willing to temporarily invoke the 25th Amendment? It would be disconcerting for enough a mentally competent President to become this physically ill. We’re talking about a psychotic lunatic here.

Of course if Donald Trump doesn’t have the coronavirus, then based on what the experts are saying, he should be in the clear within a week. But Trump an elderly man in visibly poor health, who has a consistent habit of relying on doctors who tell him what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear. He precisely matches the description of someone who is the most vulnerable to worst effects of this virus.