“Trump had tried to joke about the virus for months, sometimes even mocking people who had become ill… At one meeting several months [before Trump got sick], NEC director Larry Kudlow had stifled a cough. The room had frozen… Trump had waved his hands in front of his face, as if to jokingly ward off any flying virus particles, and then cracked a smile. ‘I was just kidding,’ he’d said. ‘Larry will never get COVID. He will defeat it with his optimism… John Bolton,’ he had said … ‘Hopefully COVID takes out John'” – Excerpt of the new book “Nightmare Scenario” published in Axios, adding “The authors’ sources thought Trump was deadly serious.”