President Trump tweeted early Friday that he and the Melania, the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19. President Trump is 74-years-old and overweight, placing him at high-risk. The announcement comes 32 days before the election.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Senior aide Hope Hicks came down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week. The First Lady tweeted that she and her husband were “feeling good.”
As too many Americans have done this year, @potus & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements. Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together.
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) October 2, 2020
In Jewish tradition, prayers for recovery and Divine mercy are said in the name of the mother of the supplicant. In the case of the president, the prayers would be for Donald, the son of Mary Anne. Melania’s mother’s name is Amilja.
It is fervently hoped that the president and First Lady will make a complete and swift recovery but should the president become incapacitated and unable to perform his duties, 25th Amendment states that the vice president should replace the commander-in-chief. If the VP is also unable to assume control, the powers are then delegated to the Speaker of the House, in this case, Nancy Pelosi. If it becomes clear that the president is unable to take office should the Republican party win the election, the 168 members of the republican national committee would meet and vote to pick a replacement to run on their party’s ticket. The rules require all members – three from each state and three from six territories – to cast the same number of votes they were entitled to cast the national convention. If members of a given state fail to unanimously agree on the casting of votes, they would then divide it equally and cast a third of those votes. This would be unprecedented as no presidential candidate of either party has ever died or withdrawn before an election.
It is interesting to note that in Hebrew, the gematria (Hebrew numerology) of Donald Trump’s (דונלד טראמפ) equals 424 – which is also the numerical equivalent of ‘Moshiach for the House of David’ (משיח בן דוד). Trump was often compared to Persian King Cyrus who facilitated the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus was the only non-Jewish leader to be referred to in the Bible as Moshiach, literally ‘His anointed one’. The word for ‘anointed one’ in Hebrew is ‘Moshiach’ (משיח).
At the same time, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most prominent rabbis of this generation who has recently begun preaching that the Messiah is imminent, was also diagnosed with COVID-19. Rabbi KIanievsky is 92-years-old. Prayers for Rabbi Kanievsky should be said for Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim the son of Miriam.
The next debate between the two presidential candidates is scheduled for October 15 and it appears that the president will still be in quarantine. Extreme left-wing activist Linda Sarsour commented on the president’s diagnosis by Twitter:
Seems like someone don’t wanna go back to the debate stage.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) October 2, 2020
