Donald Trump reportedly discussed sending Americans infected with COVID-19 to Guantanamo Bay to control the spread of the virus in the country, according a new book by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta.
During a meeting in the Situation Room in February last year to discuss whether infected persons could be sent home for care, Trump asked attendees if there isn’t some place else they could go for quarantine like an island or even Guantanamo Bay–where the U.S. detains terrorism suspects.
“Don’t we have an island that we own?” he asked members of his staff, and “What about Guantánamo?”
According to the Washington Post aides were stunned by Trump’s suggestion and quickly squashed the idea when he mentioned it a second time.
The book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, is set of be published on June 29.
