THE NEW YORK TIMES: A president who rose to fame — in business, on TV and in politics — on an archipelago of exaggerations finds himself facing a public skeptical of his account of his own health.
Was it a hoax? Was it a lie? Was the president sicker than he claimed — or not sick at all? (What does “mild” mean, and how is it different from “moderate”?) Was there any way this alarming news was an ultra-cynical con?
Waking up on Friday to the stunning development that the president of the United States had tested positive for Covid-19 after months of downplaying the virus, some Americans had a similar reaction: Maybe it’s not true.
“I don’t believe it,” said Anthony Collier, a truck driver from Atlanta. “It’s like he’s trying to get sympathy.”
There is no evidence, of course, to support the view that Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, are anything but ill. As updates on the president’s condition came in, followed by the news that he would be hospitalized, the chatter turned from skepticism that the president was sick to doubts that the White House was being forthright about his condition.
Across social media, in interviews, in conversations, the questions poured in all day from people who have heard so many contradictory things over the last four years — a warp-speed whiplash of conflicting realities — that they no longer know what is true. » | Sarah Lyall and Reid J. Epstein | Friday, October 2, 2020
