‘If You Coughed, It Was Like You Had Plague’: Piers Morgan Slams ‘Germaphobe' Trump's COVID Response

British television host Piers Morgan, known for brash commentary and his support for the US President, earlier in the pandemic savaged the POTUS’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, opening his Daily Mail column with the headline "SHUT THE F*** UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP."

British broadcaster Piers Morgan, previously an outspoken champion of Donald Trump, has exclaimed in his typically brusque manner that he “doesn’t get” US President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Good Morning Britain host, who first became acquainted with Trump after winning the first installment of businessman's The Celebrity Apprentice reality game show in 2008, opened up on his relationship with the President in an interview with the Guardian on Monday.

Donald Trump, seeking contestants for "The Apprentice" television show, is interviewed at Universal Studios Hollywood Friday, July 9, 2004, in the Universal City section of Los Angeles.

© AP Photo / RIC FRANCIS

Morgan claimed he was puzzled by Donald Trump’s underplaying of COVID-19, for which the President recently tested positive and received treatment, saying:

“He’s actually a germaphobe. If you coughed, it was like you’d got the plague and out would come the Purell [hand sanitiser] and he wouldn’t shake hands with people. He was obsessive about it.”

British journalist Piers Morgan (File)

© AP Photo / Vianney Le Caer

Echoing his earlier criticism of Trump’s dismissive attitude towards the coronavirus, the television host continued:

“When he gets hit by a real killer virus, he treats it like a bloody casual load of nonsense. I don’t get that.”

PMorgan previously tore into Trump’s “ridiculous” actions, when the President briefly left the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to stage a drive-by after being diagnosed with the virus.

“What’s he doing? The whole thing is utterly ridiculous… This is from a President who is in charge of a pandemic which has seen more than 200,000 Americans lose their lives,” said Morgan on Good Morning Britain last week.

Earlier in the pandemic, Morgan published an explosive Daily Mail column, entitled “SHUT THE F**K UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP”, where he lambasted the President's suggestions of various unproved and controversial cures for coronavirus, such as “injecting disinfectant”.

*NEW COLUMN*
Shut the f**k up, Mr President.
Trump's batsh*t crazy coronavirus 'cure' theories are not just shockingly senseless and stupid - they're going to kill people. https://t.co/FMj72r1fyQ pic.twitter.com/0tqzxp4RGG

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 24, 2020

"President Trump's bats — crazy coronavirus cure theories are not just shockingly senseless and stupid — they're going to kill people," ranted Morgan at the time.