MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Did the White House edit Trump's coughs from video? Internet says everything he posts is 'scripted and staged'

Although the video sees Trump quite stable as opposed to numerous reports claiming he is critical, about one minute into the video, he appears to have what looks like a hiccup

Ever since the news regarding Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis was made public, endless speculations surrounding his condition are swirling across the media. To provide more clarity on his recovery and to thank all the medical professionals at Walter Reed, who have been working on his case, the POTUS shared a four-minute-long video on his Twitter handle on October 4. 

The video soon caught the attention of Internet users and many others for various reasons with many pointing out that the White House "edited" the video in order to eliminate the bit in which Trump appears to be coughing. 

Speaking from the hospital, the president begins saying he wants to thank "all the medical professionals, the doctors, the nurses, everybody at the Walter Reed medical center. I think it’s the finest in the world for the incredible job they are doing." Trump continues by offering an update on his condition by assuring that he's feeling much better and how everybody is working hard to get him back as he still has to "Make America Great Again".

He also claims "we've done an awfully great job at that. But we still have steps to go and finish our job. I’ll be back soon." Although the video sees Trump quite stable as opposed to numerous reports saying he's critical, about one minute into the video, he appears to have what looks like a hiccup.

While talking about fighting the coronavirus globally, Trump notes, "We are going to beat this coronavirus or whatever you want to call it and we are going to beat it soundly." However, the video seems to break a few seconds later after he says, "So many things have happened. If you look at the therapeutics I am taking right now and others are coming out soon that are looking like, frankly, they are miracles."

As soon as the video started making the rounds on the Internet, more people indulged in a debate, arguing as to whether or not the White House altered the president’s clip from the hospital to hide his cough. White House reporter Andrew Feinberg was one of the first to slam the Trump administration for tweaking the video. He wrote on Twitter, "The White House is editing video to remove coughs."

To support his argument further, Feinberg re-tweeted a post by shared by actor and writer Alex Plank, consisting of the alleged audio waveform of Trump's video. The tweet reads, "Yup. Top is the original audio's waveform. I applied amplification to get the bottom waveform. You can easily see where the editing occurred."

The video also shows a blank sheet of paper placed in a dossier before Trump. On watching it, a significant number of Twitter users have asked what was the purpose of the same. One tweeted, "The blank piece of paper in front of Trump is the perfect metaphor for his entire life." Another said, "In excellent form as he signed that blank sheet of paper."

Adding to the previous tweet, another wrote, "Oh, there's no danger that he will be working too hard on real things. Signing blank pieces of paper is right with his skill set."

Meanwhile, users who are convinced that Trump's cough was edited have shared that the video was "scripted and staged" to underplay the consequences of the infection. One tweeted, "I think you're right. Everything is scripted and the spin is always positive. If they spent half the effort on masking and isolating the infected, Trump wouldn’t be in the hospital. There’s no shame in getting sick. But he wants everybody sick to make it look inevitable."

Another added, "What the hell happened to his mouth and body right after 'therapeutics'? Looks like a spasm/gagging motion to me, though I can see why it may also be the beginning of a cough and then the start of a fresh take."