From injecting bleach as a cure for the virus that's killed over 600 thousand Americans to filling a moat with alligators to curb unauthorized immigration, former President Donald Trump had some wildly unhinged ideas for addressing some of the nation's most urgent issues.
Now, another of his terrifying suggestions—featured in Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta—is raising eyebrows once again.
In February of 2020, as Trump was dismissing the severity of the imminent outbreak of the virus, he privately suggested in a Situation Room meeting the possibility of keeping infected Americans in Guantanamo Bay.
Trump reportedly said:
"Don't we have an island that we own? What about Guantanamo?"
The infamous prison is widely known for its harsh conditions and for housing some of the world's deadliest criminals. Its closure has been supported by Democratic Presidents like Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
According to the book, which features nearly 200 sources including senior White House staffers, Trump went on to lament the growing accessibility of testing (something he often did in public as well), worried it would cost him the 2020 election.
People were amazed at the latest revelation from the Trump White House.
I\u2019m sorry whathttps://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— shauna (@shauna) 1624280428
I just\u2014https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— Imani Gandy (@Imani Gandy) 1624279182
There are no limitshttps://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— Chip Franklin\ud83c\udfdbInsideTheBeltway.com (@Chip Franklin\ud83c\udfdbInsideTheBeltway.com) 1624284805
oh my godhttps://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— all dogs are cute, but not all cutes are dogs (@all dogs are cute, but not all cutes are dogs) 1624293342
Democracy facing an existential crisis from the dumbest man we could findhttps://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— Gillian Branstetter (@Gillian Branstetter) 1624278724
No words....https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— Eddie Mnemonic *is vaccinated (@Eddie Mnemonic *is vaccinated) 1624281057
It further laid bare the most insidious aspects of Trump's character.
These are the musings of a very stupid and unwell manhttps://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@Wu-Tang Is For The Children) 1624288194
there is no botttom to how awful he is.https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— dr_bombay \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83c\udf78\ud83c\udf78 (@dr_bombay \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 \ud83c\udf78\ud83c\udf78) 1624284773
Jesus. He wanted to send us off like lepers.https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1406945711908864006\u00a0\u2026— YukonCorleone (@YukonCorleone) 1624287772
What's more, Guantanamo is not, in fact, an island.
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