The Trump administration has so little credibility that when it was announced that the president and first lady had tested positive for COVID-19 the first reaction of many people online was whether it was true or not. My Twitter feed filled with tweets explaining that Trump probably just wanted to distract voters from his unhinged debate performance. Some added that Trump would use a miraculously quick recovery to prove he’d been right all along that the disease is little worse than the flu.
It quickly became undeniable that Trump had contracted the disease, but people were right to question the administration’s story and not just because Trump has a well-deserved reputation for prevarication. My research shows that the single issue presidents have lied about the most is their health. They lie for three reasons. One, presidents believe their health is their own business and should be kept private. Two, they worry that an admission of physical weakness will become a metaphor for political weakness. Three, they fear (rightly) that their illness will quickly become the dominant political news, damaging their ability to control the political agenda; every minute spent discussing the president’s health is a minute people won’t be talking about what the president wants them to.
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