JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

He was secretly vaccinated

We’re perfect! We need none of your medicine!

There’s something I learned about a few weeks ago, but it has yet to escape my head. It’s this …

Donald Trump was secretly vaccinated for COVID.

It happened back in January—both Donald and Melania received the shot. And … well, they told nobody (outside of, I’ll presume, some family members and close advisers). There was no press release. No press briefing. There was no video of Donald’s rolled-up sleeve, a needle poking through the skin. There was no PSA. No statement advising his followers to come along for the ride.

Again, Donald Trump was secretly vaccinated for COVID.

And, if you think about it, this may well be the most evil of Trump’s evils. Yeah, it’s not as rude as a Tweet, not as loud as a speech, not as jarring as calling someone fat or stupid or dumb or traitorous. But as we speak, more than 1/3 of Republicans insist they won’t get vaccinated, just as—when Trump was in office—enormous percentages of his followers said they thought masks were a scam; said they thought the virus was a hoax; said they thought the whole thing was created to get Joe Biden elected.

Again, Donald Trump was secretly vaccinated for COVID.

How many lives would have been saved had Trump worn a mask from the beginning? How many lives would have been saved had Trump not held rallies in crowded, enclosed spaces? How many lives would have been saved had Trump taken COVID seriously?

How many lives could still be saved had Trump allowed a camera to capture the moment he received the shot; had he stood afterward and said, “It’s safe, it’s painless and it’ll allow all of you to go back to normalcy”?

Alas, he is Donald Trump.

He probably hated the idea of his fleshy schoolmarm arm being captured for all to see.

He probably hated the suggested vulnerability.

He probably hated any trace that maybe, just maybe, he was (gasp) wrong.

So he received the shot in private, without uttering a peep.

Because he is—and always has been—monstrous.