He could be faking it to play the sympathy card and gain votes, or to get out of having to play fair in the next debate by allowing Biden to speak without heckling him. He’s definitely cynical and manipulative enough, but I’d prefer to reserve judgement to see how his supposed illness develops first. If he and Melania genuinely have the Covid virus, it is indeed a very convenient distraction at this crucial moment in the campaign but something that he has courted by his cavalier attitude to mask wearing and disregard, bordering on disdain, for scientific facts and advice.

You bring up a serious possibility.
This pig has lied so many times and manipulated the weak minded so long that I wouldn't put it past him to "pretend" suffer through COVID to invalidate the election.
Would not be out of character in the least.

Yes, I hope he tries his own cures on himself.

You know, if he survives this and he probably will... he'll say,, "I had the virus, it was nothing. I mean, I suffered, of course, I took it on and beat it but it was nothing. It only kills people who were going to die anyway. I suffered horribly, like no one else but it was nothing."
pukes

OTOH... He loves "fake news" I would totally believe he's lied about this to escape responsibility for the debate and any upcoming ones.

I am not sure how i feel about this. There are sooooo many different levels to this. On the most basic level of trump only as a person.... He is despicable and the world would be a better place without him. But then i look at the upcoming election. One thing he has done is to make sooooo many more people want to vote simply to get him out of office. If he dies and then Pence becomes the candidate, some of those people may not be as inclined to go to the polls any more. We need EVERY SINGLE person to vote. And then there is the conspiracy part of me that thinks trump believes he won't win. If he can 'die' and disappears, the narcissistic part of him won't have to go through the election and suffer the humiliation of losing. Also he knows that if he loses, he will suddenly be the target of a multitude of state and federal criminal investigations. The federal ones, he might be able to twist his pardon power enough to make them go away, but the state level investigations will continue and very likely he would go to jail. If he 'dies', they stop. So i am a) not sure if i believe it but b) if it is real, i am not sure if i want him to recover or die.

Finally some positive news from the WH! Mr Trump passes a test without cheating.

Unless and until he is on a ventilator (with video documentation) and power is transferred to Pence, I can’t believe anything he says. This could be a lie for so many reasons.
Get out of debates,
As an excuse for why he is going to lose,
Distract from talking about Proud Boys or taxes
He doesn’t want a second term, but his pride won’t let him back out,
So he can “miraculously “ recover and show his base he is invincible,
the list goes on.

I can't believe how many ostensibly rational people are speculating that this might be some kind of hoax or conspiracy.

If he learned nothing else from Qanon, he should've learned how contagious hoaxes can be

What happens if tRump dies from covid19? Does pence run for president?

I believe it's a con even now. Plans have been made for the moderator to control both mics in the next debate. This will not work for Trump and he was going to raise hell about it. He wants the debates to be a loud and open shitshow. With the idea of Trump now having COVID you can imagine that there will be no more debates. Is it true, or is this the plan?

Looking a gift horse in the mouth, Trumps possible demise before the election may result in some unanticipated constitutional questions. Would a new election have to be held with a new Republican nomination process. (my wife and I have already voted, sent our ballots in) How far back would the inauguration (Jan. 20), be pushed and who would be president after Jan. 20 if a new election was not conducted by that time.

It all seems a bit convenient one way or another, after that last "debate" I am sure there are a lot of people in the WH who are glad he is going to to be "shut up" (in all senses of the term) for a while.
I wonder if "der weiße Engel" is infected too or if he will take over as President pro temp.
"Is it safe"?

I doubt it is a hoax but wonder how many people the stupid fuck has infected. I hope the debate hall was well ventilated.

This is going to be a contact tracing nightmare!

My neighbor just speculated aloud something that was in the back of my own mind-

Supposing it's all a hoax to avoid the next debate, where Trump would have to face questions from and interact with members of the general public? It's established that he's the absolute worst at the town hall setting. This way he gets out of the debate and doesn't have to admit what a huge coward he truly is when he knows he's going to lose.

Ordinarily, I'm the last one to peddle any kind of conspiracy theory. But really, there's absolutely no way to know. And given the track record, why would we believe anything out of this White House?

I think he's just playing a sympathy card to get elected. I'll believe it when he's dead.