President Donald Trump’s recent statement about being concerned about Ebola, after an American tested positive for the disease, has brought back memories of what he said during Barack Obama’s presidency when the same crisis happened in 2014.
“I’m concerned about everything, but certainly [I] am,” Trump said at a White House event for his administration’s consumer-drug website TrumpRx, according to CNBC, when asked about Ebola. This is very different from what he said back in 2014, when he repeatedly attacked Obama for how he handled the outbreak.
The World Health Organization has declared the spread of the Ebola-causing virus known as Bundibugyo, which is currently appearing in the DRC and Uganda, a global public health emergency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed earlier that one American tested positive for Ebola while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Trump’s past Ebola criticism of Obama now looks hypocritical given his own response
Back in 2014, Trump posted close to 100 tweets criticizing Obama’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. He called Obama “stupid” and suggested he “personally embrace all people in the US who contract Ebola!” Trump also tweeted, “I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent.”
Trump also went after Obama’s Ebola czar, Ron Klain, tweeting that he had “zero experience in the medical area and zero experience in infectious disease control. A TOTAL JOKE!” Yet Trump later picked Vice President Mike Pence to lead the federal government’s coronavirus response, even though Pence had no background in medicine or infectious disease control either.
This pattern of shrugging off serious national security threats has drawn repeated criticism from across the political spectrum. The US government has taken steps to contain the current Ebola outbreak, including evacuating the infected American and six other high-risk contacts to Germany for further treatment. Still, the situation has raised concerns about a possible wider spread of the disease.
In a public health crisis, information needs to be communicated clearly and directly, with no room for political games. Trump’s intense focus on Ebola during Obama’s presidency suggests he did not understand that in 2014, and his response to public health crises since then suggests he still has not learned it.
Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic also drew heavy criticism for being inconsistent. Some of his own officials reportedly grew frustrated with him during that period, as his public statements often conflicted with what health experts were saying. His broader political moves have also continued to raise eyebrows, including how Trump targeted a Republican senator who voted against him on January 6, using Louisiana’s primary to settle the score.
Published: May 19, 2026 01:15 pm