from Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman:
On camera, Trump could not resist trying to one-up and undermine his own specialists. After a top Homeland Security science adviser presented research revealing the virus to be vulnerable to higher temperatures, Trump mused aloud about potential applications of this finding. “So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light—and I think you said that hasn’t been checked because of the testing,” Trump said, before looking off to the side of the room where his doctors typically sat while he spoke, apparently in search of affirmation. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.” And then, “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see, it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”
Trump searched for a quick virus remedy, from anyone who could get through to him. After billionaire tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison and the Fox News host Laura Ingraham evangelized to him about the supposed efficacy of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as an alternative therapeutic to prevent the virus, Trump began to endorse its use. “Look, it may work and it may not work,” Trump told reporters, relying on Norman Vincent Peale’s power-of-positive-thinking method to combat the novel virus. “And I agree with the doctor, what he said: It may work, it may not work. I feel good about it. That’s all it is. Just a feeling. You know, I’m a smart guy. I feel good about it.”
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