President Trump announced his positive test for Covid-19 on Friday, October 2. While many people have wished for him to recover quickly, here are just a few of the not-so-positive reactions that we have seen:
- Zara Rahim, Hillary Clinton’s former 2016 National Spokeswoman and a former Obama White House staffer, posted on twitter “It’s been against my moral identity to tweet this for the past four years, but I hope he dies.”
- The famous comedian, actor, and producer Chris Rock said before a live studio audience on SNL that “President Trump is in the hospital from COVID. And I just want to say my heart goes out to COVID.”
- According to a Morning Consult poll on Oct. 2, 40% of Democrats said they feel “happy’ after hearing about Trump’s positive test.
- On the popular social media site Reddit, users with upvotes from thousands of other accounts posted hateful comments towards Trump, including “I just woke my husband up to tell him and he said ‘thank you’ and went back to sleep”, “Do you guys think the virus will be ok?”, “‘Ruth sent me’ -Covid19”, “I’m surprised Melania caught it considering she’s never been in contact with Donald Trump”, and many more.
- The LA Times even published an article titled “When Reagan was shot, the country rallied around, but he hadn’t spent months downplaying assassins.”
Some have even peddled conspiracy theories about Trump not having Covid-19 at all, saying he lied about being diagnosed in order to use it as a political tool. Still others are panicking over what they see as a “White House Outbreak,” with national correspondent Ben Tracy of CBS tweeting “I feel safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do reporting at the White House. This is just crazy.”
Thankfully, many major figures on the political left have called for civility and encouraged people to refrain from wishing for Trump’s death. Piers Morgan tweeted “They’re no better than the man they loathe,” and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tweeted “Jill and I send our thoughts to president Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.” Other political figures have tweeted similar statements.
Yet, despite those figures’ good wishes, the fact remains that many people have celebrated Trump’s diagnosis or wished for his death, emphasizing just how divided and partisan the U.S. has become. Some are so secure in their views that they are confident enough to declare, in public, their wishes for the sitting President’s death, or their celebration of the fact that he was diagnosed with a disease that so far has been attributed with the death of over 200k Americans. Furthermore, while we have seen some public statements, who knows how many more people have shared those same thoughts in private?
Imagine the reaction in decades past to a president getting diagnosed with a major disease. While I was not alive when Reagan was shot, I can confidently say the amount of people wishing for his death, or celebrating his injury, was essentially zero, especially in mainstream society. Yet, this past week we have seen prominent political figures and celebrities celebrating President Trump’s diagnosis, and while polls are not necessarily accurate, seen one where 40% of Democrats expressed happiness over the President’s positive test.
It used to be unthinkable to say or wish such a thing in public, but now it is common enough to be mainstream. More and more, people are living in political ‘bubbles’ where they read, watch, and listen to only the sources they agree with. They may be friends solely with those who share their same political values and opinions, and drive out from their lives those who think differently. Gradually, they may start thinking about people who hold other political views with distaste, until they reach the point where they can publicly declare to thousands of other like-minded people that they want the President to die, not realizing just how corrupted their hearts and minds have become.
America has become increasingly divided, and no matter who wins this election, it is scary to imagine just how extreme the nation’s increasing partisanship will become over the next four years and beyond.
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