Former US President Donald Trump’s handling of the corona pandemic has long been considered controversial. It is now known that he reportedly considered sending infected compatriots to quarantine in Guantánamo after returning from vacation.

The Washington Post reported this in advance, citing the unpublished book “Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History”, which two employees of the newspaper wrote. 

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The US operates a military base with a notorious prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“Don’t we have an island that we own?” Trump is said to have asked in the White House in February 2020 before the virus spread dramatically in the United States. And then: “What about Guantánamo?” 

Trump advisors were stunned, wrote the Washington Post. Ultimately, the idea was discarded because the advisors were concerned about the public reaction if holiday returnees were housed at the same US base as terror suspects.

No clear responsibilities in the fight against pandemics

The newspaper also reported, citing the book, that Trump complained to his Health Minister Alex Azar in March 2020 that the federal government had taken the lead in the corona tests. 

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Trump is said to have said:

“I’m going to lose the election because of testing! What idiot had the federal government do testing?” Trump asked. 

Azar then pointed out to him that his son-in-law Jared Kushner had taken the initiative.

The book is scheduled for release on June 29. The authors Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta are employees of the “Washington Post”. 

According to the newspaper, the book traces the chaos in the Trump administration as a result of the pandemic. 

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According to the authors, one of the biggest problems was that there were no clear responsibilities for responding to the pandemic.

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