In the wake of his testing positive for coronavirus, President Trump has gone dark. Not a peep from his Twitter account, and he's nowhere to be found on his favorite news network, Fox News. According to The Atlantic's David A. Graham, that's enough reason to be suspicious of the White House's claim that he just has "mild symptoms."
Vice President Mike Pence also backed up that assertion, saying that the first couple "are both well at this time and will remain at the White House."
Graham writes that the "longer Trump stays out of view, the less anyone will take Pence’s word for it. The president has made himself such a steady presence in American lives, tweeting through every controversy, at all hours, and never missing a chance to weigh in—that the roughly 14 hours of silence (as of this writing) feel monumental."
"The silence is all the more remarkable because Trump so values the appearance of vigor. At several moments in the past year, the president has appeared physically shaky—struggling to drink out of a glass, or to descend a ramp—at times when he is, ostensibly, healthy," Graham writes. "Trump has bristled at any questions about his health, in part because he has invested a great deal of effort in spreading the message that his opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, is not fit enough to hold the office."
Read the full op-ed over at The Atlantic.