Former President Trump wanted to don a Superman shirt after being discharged from Walter Reed hospital for COVID-19.
According to a new book by Trump beat writer Maggie Haberman, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Trump wanted to be wheeled out of Walter Reed before standing up and unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a Superman logo on his chest.
While Trump eventually abandoned the idea, he was serious enough about the plan to send an aide to a big-box store in Virginia to look for Superman shirts.
“[H]e would be wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair and, once outdoors, he would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal [a] Superman logo beneath it. (Trump was so serious about it that he called the campaign headquarters to instruct an aide, Max Miller, to procure the Superman shirts; Miller was sent to a Virginia big-box store.)”
According to Haberman, Trump was inspired by singer James Brown, who often wore a cape to the stage before flinging it off in dramatic fashion. The idea also reportedly appealed to Trump because of his love for professional wrestling. Trump has performed on WWE programming and is in the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Trump spent three days in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center while receiving treatment for COVID-19. He was flown into and out of the hospital on Marine One. Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America comes out on Tuesday.