U.S. president, Donald Trump has revealed how the COVID-19 pandemic has been helping him during his election campaign.
He said the coronavirus pandemic ‘could be a good thing’ as it would allow him to stop shaking hands with ‘disgusting’ supporters.
According to a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, Trump said this in reaction to Olivia Troye’s accusation of him being self-centered.
Olivia Troye, who served on the White House coronavirus task force until late July, accused the president of ‘not caring about anyone else but himself’, as she urged US voters to stop him from serving a second term on Thursday, September 17 in a video released by the group Republican Voters Against Trump.
She said working for the US leader was ‘terrifying’ and he was more concerned about his re-election chances than with protecting the nation from Covid-19 pandemic.
In reaction, the White House has rubbished the claims, describing Troye as a ‘disgruntled’ former employee, while Trump has insisted he does not know Ms Troye, who was Mr Pence’s homeland security adviser.
Ms Troye alleges the president said during one task force meeting: ‘Maybe this Covid thing is a good thing. I don’t like shaking hands with people. I don’t have to shake hands with these disgusting people.’
She added: ‘Those disgusting people are the same people that he claims to care about. These are the people still going to his rallies today who have complete faith in who he is.’ Nearly 200,000 people have now died with coronavirus in the US, while more than 6.5 million cases have been discovered. Ms Troye is a lifelong Republican – but said she plans to vote for Democrat Joe Biden in November’s presidential election.
She said: ‘If the president had taken this virus seriously, or if he had actually made an effort to tell how serious it was, he would have slowed the virus spread, he would have saved lives.’
