According to a bombshell report in the Washington Post, Donald Trump suggested shipping Americans infected with COVID-19 to Guantánamo as the pandemic began to spread across the United States.
Based upon the book "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History," by the Post's Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, the report states, "In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as White House officials debated whether to bring infected Americans home for care, President Donald Trump suggested his own plan for where to send them, eager to suppress the numbers on U.S. soil," with Trump asking aides, "Don't we have an island that we own? What about Guantánamo? We import goods. We are not going to import a virus."
The report notes that the ex-president's aides were "stunned" by his suggestion -- and it was quickly dropped.
Equally stunned were critics of the one-term president as the report spread on Twitter, with one commenter calling out Trump for his "genocidal callousness."
You can see a sampling of responses below:
@ddiamond @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta I remember when he didn't want to take on the cruise ship passengers for medic… https://t.co/btaVf04RnW— Sir Humphrey (@Sir Humphrey) 1624277203.0
@ddiamond @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta The terrifying thing about that: literally no one who voted for him would chan… https://t.co/c5I4cY25gB— M L C (@M L C) 1624279480.0
@ddiamond @nycsouthpaw @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta How does one react to this ? Does one react to the genocidal call… https://t.co/qkCGjsZC9q— MaKin (@MaKin) 1624277563.0
@ddiamond @NatashaBertrand @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta Can you just send him and his family there forever?— Mary (@Mary) 1624277793.0
@ddiamond @maggieNYT @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta I believe this is how Hitler began the “cleansing” of a virus.— Sick of the GOP (@Sick of the GOP) 1624277557.0
@ddiamond @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta This is the man whose followers liken to Jesus— 𝙹𝚊𝚢𝚗𝚒𝚎’𝚜 𝙶𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝙱𝚞𝚗 (@𝙹𝚊𝚢𝚗𝚒𝚎’𝚜 𝙶𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝙱𝚞𝚗) 1624277361.0
@CarolLeonnig @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta My god, what a sick fvck!— cookie brit (@cookie brit) 1624278785.0
@ddiamond @NatashaBertrand @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta The level of incompetence and stupidity is breathtaking.— Scott (@Scott) 1624277273.0
@ddiamond @nycsouthpaw @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta Staggering incompetence.— Tomás O'Loughlin (@Tomás O'Loughlin) 1624277293.0
@ddiamond @yabutaleb7 @damianpaletta And Republicans want the incompetent moron back as president. Americans are so… https://t.co/VzDdkWbkVv— Ken "Vaxxed" Cox 🇨🇦 (@Ken "Vaxxed" Cox 🇨🇦) 1624279161.0
