Trump claims he is ‘immune’ from coronavirus, defends federal response

President Trump in an interview on Sunday claimed he is now “immune” from the coronavirus, despite research indicating it is possible to be reinfected with the virus.

“It seems like I’m immune, so I can go way out of a basement,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” using a frequent attack line against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who appeared in Erie, Pa., on Saturday.

“It looks like I’m immune for, I don’t know, maybe a long time, maybe a short time. It could be a lifetime. Nobody really knows,” Trump continued, adding that he had a “protective glow” as a result. A study published in September in the journal Nature Medicine, however, indicated that recovery from coronaviruses does not confer lifetime immunity.

The president was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday after being taken there the previous Friday. The White House has not answered questions about the last time Trump tested negative for the virus.

The president on Sunday also defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which he has repeatedly claimed will spontaneously “go away.”

“One is too many, but 2.2 million was the prediction as to how many people would die,” Trump said. “We lost 200,000-plus, and, you know, there are those that say we did a phenomenal job.”

The model Trump referenced involved a scenario with no mitigation efforts. The model said the U.S. would face 110,000 to 220,000 deaths with mitigation efforts. About 214,000 Americans have died from the virus as of Sunday.

Trump, who last week announced he was calling off negotiations on further coronavirus stimulus until after the election before reversing himself, also claimed in the interview that “Republicans want to do it.”

“Republicans want to do it. We’re having a hard time with [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.],” Trump claimed. “We’re ready to go. We’re all ready to go. We can’t get Nancy Pelosi to sign the documents.”

Sources on Saturday told The Hill that Senate Republicans had “significant concerns” about the $1.8 trillion the White House has offered Pelosi. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) reportedly told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that there was “no appetite” for the $1.8 trillion package.