Trump laughed about having COVID after 2020 Biden debate, ex-aide's memoir says

Donald Trump and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows reportedly joked about the ex-president having COVID-19 during his 2020 presidential debate with Joe Biden.

An upcoming memoir by Meadows’ aid Cassidy Hutchinson alleges her former boss and Trump made light of the fact Trump tested positive for the deadly virus days before he and Biden squared off in September 2020. The discussion took place aboard Air Force One following the debate.

According to the Guardian, which received an advance copy of “Enough,” Hutchinson asked Meadows after that flight if testing showed the former president was infected. Meadows — who confirmed that was the case in his own 2021 memoir — responded with a telling silence.

“The virus had reached the highest echelons of power,” she writes.

Meadows reportedly assured Trump during the flight that if word got out the president was sick with the virus at the debate, “we,” meaning Meadows and Hutchinson, would handle the fallout publicly. The White House announced three days after the debate that Trump and the first lady had COVID.

Hutchinson’s memoir alleges Trump admitted on the flight home his voice was “a little bit off” at a recent rally, but he didn’t want the media to “accuse me of something ridiculous, like having Covid.”

According to Meadows, Trump tested positive three days before the debate, but also tested negative for COVID twice in the days leading up to the event.

The former president didn’t test immediately before the event, where he repeatedly interrupted Biden and moderator Chris Wallace during an especially bombastic performance that prompted his opponent to snap back, “Will you shut up, man?”

Trump and Biden debated a second time in October, where the former president spoke about being hospitalized with COVID.

“I was in for a short period of time and I got better very fast or I wouldn’t be here tonight,” Trump said.