President Donald Trump joked that he was going to “kiss everyone” in the audience at Monday night’s campaign rally in Sanford, Florida, contending that he is now “immune” to coronavirus.
Trump introduced the topic by reacting to news over the weekend of a World Health Organization (WHO) official warning against lockdowns as the “primary means of control” for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“But the World Health Organization, did you see what happened? They just came out a little while ago and they admitted that Donald Trump was right,” he said.
After criticizing lockdowns in general, the present launched into his own recent battle with the virus, calling himself “immune.”
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“I feel so powerful,” Trump joked as the audience cheered. “I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and the … everybody. I’ll just give you a big fat kiss.”
“No, but there is something — so I don’t have to be locked up in my basement, and I wouldn’t allow that to happen anyway,” he continued. “I wouldn’t allow it to happen. When you’re the president you can’t lock yourself in a basement and say ‘I’m not going to bother with the world.’ You gotta get out, and it’s risky. It’s risky, but you gotta get out.”
The president did state that it is unknown for how long immunity lasts, given the novelty of the disease.
“I don’t know for how long, some people say for life, some people say for four months,” he said. “I mean every time I think about it, every time I hear that it gets shorter and shorter and shorter because they want it to be as bad as possible. But it is a great feeling.” (RELATED: ‘Misleading And Potentially Harmful’: Twitter Flags Trump Tweet That Says He’s ‘Immune’ To Coronavirus)
Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, announced on Monday that the president had tested negative for coronavirus for “consecutive days.”