Trump Reportedly Said ‘I Could Be One of the Diers’ During COVID Treatment

Trump Reportedly Said ‘I Could Be One of the Diers’ During COVID Treatment

President Donald Trump told people who might die from COVID-19 during his treatment at Walter Reed medical center, according to a new report from New York Magazine. The magazine’s Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi reported on Friday that the president worried the virus would kill him.

According to the NY Magazine article, Trump made phone calls to ‘those close to him’ while he was receiving treatment at Walter Reed. These people appear to have included friends, family and senior Republicans, though none are named in the story.

“I could be one of the diers,” Trump said. As Nuzzi notes, ‘diers’ is an unusual and rarely-used word, but it does conjure up similar imagery to ‘losers’, a word the president is very familiar with. He repeated the phrase to the person on the other end of the phone: “I could be one of the diers.”

NY Magazine also claims Trump was reluctant to be moved to Walter Reed. He was given oxygen and an experimental antibody treatment developed from fetal tissue. However, he resisted going to Walter Reed and had to be convinced by doctors, the Secret Service, White House operations staff and Jared Kushner, Nuzzi reports.

“I don’t need to go,” Trump said. “I’m fine. I’m fine. We have everything we need here.”

Once in the hospital, Trump made calls where he reportedly stated that he was at risk of death. He said: “This thing could go either way. It’s tricky. They told me it’s tricky” and “You can tell it can go either way.”

The claims in Nuzzi’s report have not yet been verified by other news outlets but her blockbuster report will undoubtedly make waves over the coming days, with just 24 days until the presidential election on November 4.

Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is Political Media Editor

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