--- title: "In 2014, Trump Said the President Should Visit and Embrace Ebola Patients" description: "Back in 2014, Trump Obama should \"visit & embrace\" every person in the US with Ebola. Will he follow his own advice with the coronavirus?" date: "2020-03-02" modified: "2020-03-02" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/2014-trump-president-ebola-patient" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "health" - "trump" --- # In 2014, Trump Said the President Should Visit and Embrace Ebola Patients ![Back in 2014, Trump Obama should "visit & embrace" every person in the US with Ebola. Will he follow his own advice with the coronavirus?]() *\Image: Culeen Shaffer/Victor Tangermann\* Over the past week, U.S. President Donald Trump has [scrambled to figure out a coherent response]() to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak — alternately [downplaying the risk]() and making [questionable scientific claims](). Back in 2014, though, Trump had very strong feelings about how the President — at the time, Barack Obama — should deal with the then-spreading Ebola epidemic. Specifically, this: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/522394479429689344 That's it. That's the tweet. ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()