Mark Meadows said Trump's reply to finding out his positive COVID-19 test rhymed with 'Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me': book

• In his book, Meadows said that he "shuddered at the thought" of informing Trump of his COVID-19 diagnosis.
• Once he told Trump, the then-president's response rhymed with "Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me."

In late September 2020, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tried to phone then-President Donald Trump with a deeply urgent matter — the commander-in-chief's COVID-19 diagnosis.

Meadows prepared himself to tell Trump the news, but knew that he would firmly resist showing any sort of weakness to the general public, according to a new book from the top presidential aide.

With the first presidential debate between Trump and then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden just days away, Meadows knew that "nothing" would stop the then-president from trying to battle it out onstage, as he details in "The Chief's Chief."

"I shuddered at the thought of having to tell President Trump, a man who does not like to shy away from a fight, that we were going to have to have to cancel the debate with Joe Biden all because of an illness," he wrote.

When Meadows was able to reach Trump minutes later, the then-president was calling from a secure line on Air Force One after the short helicopter flight from the the White House to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland.

"Mr. President," Meadows recounted in the book. "I've got some bad news. You've tested positive for Covid-19."

Trump's immediate reply was a set of expletives that Meadows wrote rhymed with, "Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me."

In his memoir, Meadows accomplishes the tricky task of recounting his roughly 10 months at the Trump White House while avoiding swear words.

Meadows said that Trump was "concerned," but was more focused on his presidential campaign than his health.

The next few days were filled with political chaos and personal setbacks for Trump.

After Meadows informed Trump of his diagnosis, he told the then-president that the positive COVID-19 test came from an older-model kit and emphasized that another test could be performed with the Binax system.

When the second test came back negative, aides thought Trump was in the clear.

But Trump was in worse condition than most people realized — with Meadows himself noting that Trump appeared unusually tired — between late September and October 1.

In the early morning hours of October 2 — shortly after a new COVID-19 test was taken — Trump publicly announced his diagnosis.

He would then head to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was hospitalized and treated for the disease. Meadows book said that Trump's oxygen level fellow to "a dangerously low level."

Throughout 2020, Trump repeatedly minimized the threats posed by COVID-19, telling veteran journalist Bob Woodward that he didn't want to rattle people.

"I wanted to always play it down," Trump said in March 2020. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."

As of December 7, more than 790,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the US, with 49.3 million confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.