Donald Trump asked whether Covid-infected Americans abroad could be sent to Guantanamo Bay, book says
- The February 2020 episode is detailed in a forthcoming book by two Washington Post reporters
- ‘Don’t we have an island that we own?’ Trump asked, according to the book
Former US president Donald Trump pondered whether Covid-positive Americans abroad could be sent to Guantanamo Bay in the early days of the pandemic, according to a forthcoming book by two Washington Post reporters.
“Don’t we have an island that we own?” Trump queried officials assembled in the Situation Room in February 2020 as Covid-19 was tearing through Asia and Europe. “What about Guantanamo?”
As Trump explained it to his staff, according to the book: “We import goods … We are not going to import a virus.”
The United States operates the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the infamous Guantanamo detention camp, where suspected terrorists are held in austere conditions, in the Caribbean nation of Cuba.
The officials in the room were shocked at the suggestion to quarantine Americans in Guantanamo, according to the book, and scrapped the idea.
The episode was detailed in a Monday report on the book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, written by Yasmeen Abultaeb and Damian Paletta and due for release on June 29.