I've been saying since Thursday that this is far worse than we're being told. One reason I said that is this: in writing Proof of Corruption, I learned Trump went to Walter Reed unexpectedly in 2019 to *hide* a condition at a military facility. I saw that he was doing that here.

Pence was told Trump was staying at the White House. Dr. Conley also said Trump was staying at the White House. Then—suddenly—Trump was headed to Walter Reed. Journalists who haven't catalogued Trump's whole presidency may not understand what Walter Reed *means* to Donald Trump.

Trump sees Walter Reed as his—my phrase—"secret hospital." It's the place he can go for treatment that is *least* likely to leak the truth about what he is doing there. The president does not believe America has a right to *either* his tax returns *or* the truth about his health.

Trump has a pattern of conduct the Proof books detail that involves *any* professional—lawyer, doctor, national security official—who deals with him as to sensitive data he considers *his* (not America's). He went to Walter Reed to hide—literally. Journalists aren't getting that.

We're not likely to get briefings from Walter Reed doctors, because Trump didn't go to Walter Reed to enable the country to be informed about his condition—he went there to make it less likely the truth of his condition will leak. We'll still be briefed by doctors we can't trust.

I'm incredibly disappointed with those journalists who've covered this president as long as I have been writing books about him and still do not understand not only his penchant for secrecy but his obsession with leaks and his proprietary relationship with certain types of data.

As I outlined in Proof of Corruption in describing—in tick-tock detail—how Trump used Walter Reed to *hide* in November 2019, the president has a clear protocol for when he goes to certain medical facilities and for what. When that protocol is broken, he's the one who ordered it.

Donald Trump ordered that he be taken to Walter Reed; we know his medical team expected him to stay at the White House and told the Vice President of the United States that. Trump wanted to hide in a place that wouldn't leak and that US reporters would struggle to gain access to.

I say all this because Trump has established patterns of behavior that *do not change*; that's why Trump biographers are a valuable resource. Trump is a perpetual creature of habit, and if you understand his past conduct, you understand his present and his future conduct as well.

When the news first broke about Hicks' condition, I said if Trump were also sick, the White House would at least seriously discuss covering it up, but would be unable to do so. It now looks like that's exactly what happened. I'm correct about Walter Reed also—this is Trump's M.O.

Why does all this matter? Because Trump going to Walter Reed was one reason I wrote "this is really bad and we should prepare for this to be really bad." I was curating 30 data-points I'd compiled as a metajournalist. Trump's Walter Reed gambit was one. And now we know: it's bad.

My point here is that reporters *must* insist on being briefed by Walter Reed personnel. Trump's doctors and his allies in the White House *must not be quoted* for attribution; they are *not* going to be honest about this situation. We're in the midst of a classic Trump cover-up.

My pinned tweet—see link below—is a curated list of what we know, using the "minimum viable content" theory of Trump PR: you take the kernel of truth from what you're told and ignore the gloss. I'll update the thread below in my next tweet in this thread. https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1312187605346263042?s=20

Since yesterday, here are the updates:

New Symptoms:

Vital Signs Concerning
No Clear Path to Full Recovery

More Notes:

Was Likely on Supplemental Oxygen at Some Point
Doctors Won't Reveal Extent of His Fever
First Diagnosis Now Believed to Have Been *Wednesday*

I continue to say that I hope the president recovers. I continue to say—as everyone does—that statistically his chances of recovery remain, all things being equal, good. Per MSNBC last night, if what we're being told is true, Trump has a 5% to 12% chance of dying from COVID-19.

The problem: what we're being told *isn't* true. Trump's medical records—per major media—have in the past been doctored. His medical records—per major media—have included false data. And his trip to Walter Reed in late '19 was never explained because a condition was being hidden.

I have no idea what Trump's odds of death are if they are not the 5% to 12% we would normally expect for a person with his known co-morbidities. But they are north of that—this much is clear. And I do worry that reporters are being incautious about reporting out White House lies.

I've been transparent about why I've written what I've written: (1) because I'm a metajournalist (so I curate information from scores of major-media sources, rather than being limited to one or two go-tos); (2) because I already catalogued Trump's patterns of behavior in 3 books.

All I'm urging reporters—and everyone—to do is this: build an understanding of this situation via 1) curation, 2) the "minimum viable content" theory of how to "hear" a PR push when you know it's largely disinformation, and 3) our knowledge of Trump's *unwavering* modus operandi.

PS/ I hope this goes without saying: 'Trump tweets" aren't "minimum viable content." We already know that since his illness, at least some tweets were written to sound like him but not by him (we get this from Meadows). Media mustn't assume any "Trump tweet" is 1) true 2) by him.

PS2/ Remember, too, that voters are voting *now*. *Every day* Team Trump can spread disinformation about his condition and have media report it uncritically is a day Trump receives votes he apparently believes—or his team does—that he would not otherwise get. They're not stupid.

PS3/ This now-breaking news further confirms what I've said here (Conley created "minimum viable content" by being unwilling to deny Trump had been on supplemental oxygen; the game was to ignore the misleading "gloss" of Conley saying he wasn't on it now): https://twitter.com/DavidMuir/status/1312445492152856578?s=20