- Donald Trump is furious with Mark Meadows over his ex-chief of staff's new White House memoir.
- Meadows revealed that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 before his first debate with Joe Biden.
- Trump called Meadows "dumb" for sharing that information, The New York Times reported.
Former President Donald Trump is angry with Mark Meadows over his former chief of staff's new book detailing Trump's bout with COVID-19 and other challenges he faced during his last year in the White House.
Meadows, a Trump loyalist and former Republican congressman, revealed in his memoir, "The Chief's Chief," that Trump tested positive for the coronavirus before his first debate with Joe Biden in September 2020 and that the ex-president was much sicker with COVID-19 than the White House let on.
People close to Trump say he is furious with Meadows and has been privately railing against him, The Daily Beast reported on Sunday. The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported on Monday that Trump called Meadows "dumb" for revealing his COVID-19 test results. Haberman added on Tuesday that Trump reportedly "feels betrayed" by Meadows.
Trump denied being infected with COVID-19 before the debate, implying the test was proven false by a later negative result. He called Meadows' account and the media coverage of it "fake news." In an attempt to clean up the mess, Meadows went on Newsmax last week to agree with the president that his own book was "fake news."
But in the book, Meadows concedes that Trump may have been infected with the virus during the in-person debate with Biden. Trump was hospitalized with the virus just a few days later.
"We'll probably never know whether President Trump was positive that evening," Meadows wrote.
Meadows also delved into many previously unreported details about Trump's illness, including that his blood oxygen level dipped to 86% and that Trump told aides he'd "lost so much strength" and that his "muscles are just not responding."
Trump apparently didn't read Meadows' book before he promoted it in October, calling it "fantastic" and "an incredible Christmas present."
"If you want to learn about politics, truth, our great administration, and exciting achievements that took place in government, pre-order your copy now," he wrote at the time.
Despite the criticism, Meadows has offered a largely rosy account of Trump's leadership, aggressively promoting Trump's lies about the 2020 election and urging Trump to run for president again in 2024.
The last line of the book sums it up: "It's time for more historic accomplishments, and ... Four more years."