The editor of an influential Chinese state-run newspaper has mocked Donald Trump after the US President and first lady Melania Trump both tested positive for the coronavirus.
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a major Chinese tabloid and mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said that President Trump and his wife ‘have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19’.
He claimed that the diagnosis revealed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in the US and would sabotage Trump’s upcoming re-election.
Hu’s mocking comment comes after the US leader confirmed the news on Thursday evening, tweeting: ‘Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!’
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It comes as the president’s top aide Hope Hicks also contracted the virus after traveling with Trump on Air Force One and Marine One multiple times over the last week.
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The Chinese senior journalist reacted to the news with jeers, claiming that President Trump and the first lady are paying for the price for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic.
He wrote in a tweet this morning: ‘President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19.
‘The news shows the severity of the US’ pandemic situation. It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the US, and may also negatively affect his reelection,’ Hu said.
The Chinese tabloid has repeatedly slammed Washington for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
It branded the US as a ‘barbaric and greedy’ country that ‘doesn’t care about humanitarianism’ in an article published in June.
The newspaper also claimed that ‘the US government has failed its people and also failed the world’.
Trump, who has boasted of how he brought US markets to record highs, revealed he had the virus in a tweet shortly before 6am UK time.
The US president is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from the virus. A statement from the White House doctor said both the president and first lady are ‘well at this time’ but did not say if either have symptoms.
If Trump becomes seriously ill, there are constitutional procedures that would allow Vice President Mike Pence to assume power temporarily, just weeks before the November 3 election.
But if Trump suffers mild or no symptoms, the president would be able to tout his recovery as evidence that the virus is a less grave threat than many belief.
