Donald Trump’s presidency has been full of plot surprises. But no single tweet has had the same meteor-like impact as the one sent by the president shortly before 1am on Friday morning. It felt like a season finale moment. “Overnight, @FlOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19,” Trump wrote. He added, in matter-of-fact style: “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”.

The announcement was astonishing. And yet – seen through the timeline of Trump’s recent activities – it appears wholly unremarkable and perhaps even cosmically inevitable. In recent days the president has behaved with the same reckless disregard for public health rules that has characterised his response since January to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Viewed with hindsight, his meetings during the last week look ill-judged, to say the least. On Saturday the president appeared in the Rose Garden to announce his choice for the supreme court nomination, Amy Coney Barrett. Trump appeared on stage with Barrett and her family. Around 200 people watched.

One person at the ceremony was Republican senator Mike Lee of Utah. Another was the president of University of Notre Dame, John Jenkins. Jenkins sat without a mask. Lee had a mask but held it loosely in his hand as he got up afterwards and hugged friends. Both men subsequently tested positive for the virus, in what now looks to be a super-spreader event.

On Monday, Trump came back to the Rose Garden. He announced new measures to distribute Covid-19 test kits to US states – to defeat what he referred to as the “China virus”. The president was upbeat. He confidently predicted the pandemic would soon be over. “We’re rounding the corner,” he declared.