Donald Trump allegedly tested positive for COVID-19 just three days before facing Joe Biden in their first presidential debate back in 2020, according to a new book by Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. (Yes, *another* book by someone who used to work for Trump!) In the memoir, entitled The Chief’s Chief, Meadows writes that the 75-year-old former president initially received his COVID test results – which came back positive for the virus – on September 26th, 2020, three days before traveling to Cleveland for his first debate against Biden.
Trump allegedly took another one shortly afterwards which came back negative, but he chose to log the negative results “to press on as if nothing had happened.” Meadows writes that even though he knew each candidate was required “to test negative for the virus within seventy-two hours of the debate’s start time, nothing was going to stop Trump from going out there.”
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However, Trump and his people have insisted that Meadows' recollection about his test results before his debate against the current president isn’t accurate, referencing his favorite two words and calling it "fake news." According to a statement, as per The Independent, Trump said: "The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News. In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate."
Meadows went into a little more detail about the incident in which Trump had tested positive for the virus, writing in the book that he noticed that the then president was "a little tired" and thought he might have a "slight cold" on the day he tested positive.
However, despite the initial positive test, Meadows went on to say that Trump was given another – and allegedly more accurate – test, which then came back negative after a "brief but tense wait." Meadows said that he "didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, but I also didn't want to alarm the public if there was nothing to worry about – which according to the new, much more accurate test, there was not."
Apparently everyone in Trump's immediate circle were told to "treat him as if he was positive" during their trip to Pennsylvania, which Trump traveled to in order to attend a rally, but he reportedly assumed that the second negative test gave him "permission" to carry on with his plans as normal, which included meeting with military families at the White House on September 27th, appearing at the Pennsylvania rally on September 28th and then heading to Cleveland for the debate with Biden on September 29th. Trump only announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus on October 2nd.
It's worth noting that The White House held an event for Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump had just nominated to the Supreme Court, on September 26th, which Meadows writes was later considered to most likely have been a COVID-19 "superspreader" event.
According to Meadows, Trump looked "slightly" better on the day of his debate against Biden. "His face, for the most part at least, had regained its usual light bronze hue, and the gravel in his voice was gone," he writes. "But the dark circles under his eyes had deepened. As we walked into the venue around five o’clock in the evening, I could tell that he was moving more slowly than usual. He walked like he was carrying a little extra weight on his back."
