Trump raged at Kushner for ‘killing him’ on coronavirus: ‘I want to do what Mexico does’

Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in June of 2015 by descending the golden escalator at Trump Tower and launching his bid by attacking Mexico.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems," Trump said. "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting."

Just over four years later, Trump had changed his tune and wanted to mimic Mexico, according to a bombshell year-end report in the New York Times.

"It was a warm summer Wednesday, Election Day was looming and President Trump was even angrier than usual at the relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic. 'You're killing me! This whole thing is! We've got all the damn cases,' Mr. Trump yelled at Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, during a gathering of top aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. 'I want to do what Mexico does. They don't give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you're vomiting,'" the newspaper reported.

"Mexico's record in fighting the virus was hardly one for the United States to emulate. But the president had long seen testing not as a vital way to track and contain the pandemic but as a mechanism for making him look bad by driving up the number of known cases," the newspaper noted. "Mr. Trump never came around to the idea that he had a responsibility to be a role model, much less that his leadership role might require him to publicly acknowledge hard truths about the virus — or even to stop insisting that the issue was not a rampaging pandemic but too much testing."

Read the full report.