Howard Stern says it makes him uncomfortable when people say they want the president to die from COVID-19. It also irks him that President Trump, who’s been skeptical about coronavirus science, is now benefitting from the best that modern medicine has to offer.
According to Stern, people have called him to say they hope the president, who used to be a frequent guest on “The Howard Stern Show,” doesn’t survive his current predicament. Trump claimed Friday that he had tested positive for the disease that has killed 210,000 Americans in 2020, then announced Monday he was on the mend and heading home from the hospital.
“I would wince when I would hear that because I know what they’re talking about — they’re done with the hypocrisy of this thing,” the 66-year-old shock jock conceded.
While Stern insisted on his Monday morning show that he doesn’t want to see anyone dead, he famously joked in April that Trump’s die-hard supporters should “drink disinfectants and die” after the president said during a press conference that doctors may be able to develop a cleaning agent that sterilizes the lungs of people infected with the virus.
Weeks later, Stern insisted Trump secretly hates his followers and would never let them into one of his posh properties.
“The people who are voting for Trump for the most part… he wouldn’t even let them in a f—ing hotel. He’d be disgusted by them,” Stern said in May. “Go to Mar-a-Lago, see if there’s any people who look like you.”
It also upset Stern over the weekend that the president was reportedly convalescing successfully, thanks to a drug regimen including unapproved antibodies not available to the general public.
“The irony in all of it was, here’s this president who’s thumbing his nose at science, hates science, ‘science is bulls–t,’ won’t listen, ‘don’t wear your mask, blah blah blah blah blah,’ all of a sudden, who saved him?” Stern asked. “The scientists.”
In addition to his comment about disinfectants, the president has been skeptical about masks, which protect against coronavirus. He has also breathlessly endorsed medications like hydroxychlroroquine, which appear to do no such thing. Events hosted by Trump — who has ignored and downplayed the virus while being fully aware of its contagion and deadliness – frequently eschew social distancing guidelines.
The president announced he was “feeling really good Monday afternoon and praised the “really great drugs & knowledge” that made his recovery possible.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he tweeted.
Stern said that seeing the president receive VIP medical service reminds him of the wealthy teens during the war in Vietnam who didn’t die fighting because they were born into privilege and treated differently.
“He was having trouble breathing already, he’s 74-years-old and obese and it makes no difference because he got that special treatment that you’re never going to get,” Stern said. “I’m telling you, without that cocktail the president got, he’d be dead right now. He wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
Stern’s co-host Robin Quivers, a former nurse, concurred and wondered aloud why the president believed that testing would suffice as a preventive measure.
When Stern opened the phones to callers Monday, a woman named Dawn from New York angered the host by saying the top-paid radio personality and his “little millionaire friends” would also get special treatment if they tested positive for COVID-19. Stern, who said the friends he was in touch with over the weekend included a car salesman, a nurse and a police officer, took offense and insisted that isn’t true.
“You’re a f—-g c–t,” he blurted. “Go f–k yourself, you fu—-g bulls–t artist.”
Before finally getting off the subject, Stern said he would be “sad” for Trump and his family if the president were to die from COVID-19.
“I mean this from my heart, I’m so happy Donald is OK,” he said. ” I like… I’ve shared so many great moments with this guy. As a person, we have great memories.”