News

Trump said is was 'very happy' that one of his aides couldn't comfort her granddaughter who had a high fever

Trump said is was 'very happy' that one of his aides couldn't comfort her granddaughter who had a high fever

Donald Trump has said that he was glad to he was "happy to hear" that Dr. Deborah Birx, of his coronavirus task force team, couldn't comfort her ill granddaughter.

During Monday's press briefing on the White House response to Covid-19, Birx told a heartfelt and clearly troubling story about her 10-month-old granddaughter who had a high fever, which is one of the symptoms of the virus.

Birx said:

My grandchild of 10 months, got a fever of 105 this weekend. I'm a doctor and I couldn't get there. I was trying to explain to my daughter how to listen to her lungs...

At this point, Trump interrupts to clarify if Birx actually made it to see her grandchild or not. In a rather unsympathetic tone, he said:

You did not get there? You did not get there?

Birx then confirmed that she did not go there to which Trump replied:

Good, I'm very happy to hear that.

Trump then enquires if the child is OK but clearly wasn't listening as he said 'grandson' to which Birx quickly replied "granddaughter."

This bizarre moment from Trump's almost dystopian daily briefings is just another episode in Trump's highly questionable response to the pandemic but his overall lack of empathy and general ignorance in this moment has caused outrage.

At the time of writing the United States now has more than 330,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, which has resulted in more than 8,000 deaths.

The Conversation (0)