In Friday’s early hours, the White House announced that both the president and first lady had tested positive for COVID-19.
The news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were infected with the deadly virus that has thus far killed more than 200,000 Americans naturally sent shockwaves across the internet.
The story quickly took over timelines worldwide. Speculation ran amok. Among them: Trump is lying about the diagnosis to delay the election, Twitter users predicted it, and, as ever, memes.
Upon hearing the news, people in relationships just couldn’t wait to tell their partners.
Unfortunately, due to the late hour in most American time zones, many better halves were asleep. The question became one of whether to wake them up.
“My husband kept accidentally pulling my hair until I woke up so he could tell me. That’s love,” tweeted one woman.
Some whose partners didn’t wake them were actively irate about it. Others less so. “I did this to my husband and he said ‘never wake me up in the middle of the night to talk about Donald Trump unless he’s coming here and we need to escape,’” shared one.
Waking a sleeping partner can (and often does) backfire, but in this case most decided that it was worth the risk. The temptation to be the first to tell them was simply too great.
“Get you a man who wakes you up to tell you the President has COVID,” tweeted Kristin Bartlett.
The Trumps are quarantining at the White House. The president reportedly has mild symptoms.