The White House is in full spin mode, trying desperately to assure Americans that while President Donald Trump remains at Walter Reed Medical Center, he’s doing much better and continuing to perform his duties as leader of the free world.
But the “evidence” the administration is providing to bolster their case that all is well continues to fall apart as Trump’s doctors backtrack, contradict themselves, and look more like the cast of a sitcom set in a hospital than medical professionals entrusted with the already fragile health of a 74-year-old man with preexisting conditions.
The administration’s latest gambit to send a message that all is well was a video of Trump at Walter Reed, sitting at a desk and looking into the camera as he proclaimed:
“I came here, I wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me back. I have to get all the way back because we still have to make America great again.
“So many things are happening. If you look at the therapeutics, which I’m taking right now — some of them and others that are coming out soon that are looking like, frankly they’re miracles, if you want to know the truth. People criticize me when I say that, but we have things happening that look like they’re miracles coming down from God. So, I just want to tell you that I’m starting to feel good.”
Just one problem with that video: The odd editing of it, which caught the eye of many and led to speculation that it had been chopped up and reassembled to hide the fact the president had started coughing in the middle of what he was saying, according to Yahoo News:
“At one point, Mr. Trump says, ‘if you look at the therapeutics – which I’m taking right now, some of them.’ The US President appears to pause briefly and either hiccup or cough mid-sentence.
“But viewers have speculated this part was cut out.”
Trump coughed here after the word “therapeutics” and it was edited out using the morph cut feature in @AdobePremiereCC
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) October 3, 2020
And then there’s the photos of Trump “working” on some papers in front of him on the desk. Could those possibly be any faker?
Here’s one Ivanka Trump tweeted out:
Nothing can stop him from working for the American people. RELENTLESS!
pic.twitter.com/2ZSat782qe — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 4, 2020
That didn’t go over well with many on social media, either:
The photos released by the WH tonight of the president working at Walter Reed were taken 10 minutes apart at 5:25:59 pm and 5:35:40 pm ET Saturday, according to the EXIF data embedded in both @AP wire postings that were shared by the White House this evening. pic.twitter.com/EzeqIkGdf7
— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) October 4, 2020
ZOOM: @realDonaldTrump appears to be signing his name to a blank sheet of paper in this photo. pic.twitter.com/xlNX24CXn4
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 4, 2020
While it’s certainly true that Donald Trump, just like any American, is entitled to some level of privacy when it comes to his health and medical matters, we might not be quite so suspicious if he wasn’t known for being a pathological liar and if those around him weren’t trying so hard to shovel out bullshit instead of simple facts.