CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: Trump’s Coronavirus ‘Went Off Like a Bomb’ in White House, President is ‘Spooked’ and ‘Freaked Out’

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins portrayed a chastened and frightened Donald Trump in a report broadcast as footage of the president arriving by helicopter for admission in Walter Reed Medical Center played on air.

The network’s White House correspondent said that, per her sources, the news of Trump’s Covid-19 infection impacted like a “bomb inside the White House.”

“We are told he is spooked by this diagnosis,” Collins relayed. “The president is someone who is obviously very concerned about his health, he has alway kind of been that figure if you talked to people who knew him before he took office. But we told he became increasingly alarmed by his diagnosis and as he was developing symptoms overnight. So it really seemed to set in with the president what was going on. That is a big difference from… his tone on Sean Hannity last night.”

“The president’s mood is now much more freaked out than what it had been, you know, immediately upon diagnosis,” Collins added. She then pointed out in the live shots from Walter Reed that everyone in Trump’s entourage was now wearing a mask, which is a stark contrast from the relatively mask-free bubble that he traveled in before to rallies and other events.

“We are seeing how it took their boss, the president, getting coronavirus to wake people up about wearing a mask and about the

precautions,” Collins explained. “We have not seen that level of precaution inside the White House. It will be interesting to see how this changes things. But this is something that went off like a bomb inside the White House today. People realizing that their boss, the President of the United States, had tested positive for coronavirus really shook people up. So many people we spoke with were upset about it, couldn’t believe it. It was a disbelief situation. It does makes you question what will be different going forward about the way they are working out of the West Wing, now that the president is not gong to be there for a few days. It’s hard overstate how significant this moment is.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.