The world was already in chaos before Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, and now there is more uncertainty than ever

• The news that President Donald Trump has COVID-19 has thrown an already chaotic year into further turmoil.
• Trump's diagnosis rattled global markets and has major implications for national security.

President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis was the "October surprise" that no one expected.

The news threw a world already in chaos into further turmoil, raising anxiety levels to new heights across the US over the impending presidential election and rattling global markets.

Beyond the questions over how Trump contracted the virus and who he may have exposed while attending rallies, meetings, and fundraisers over the course of the past week, there are major nationals security implications to his diagnosis.

The US electoral process has been relentlessly targeted by adversaries like Russia and China, and Trump has spent months undermining the legitimacy of the November election with bogus assertions about mail-in voting leading to mass voter fraud.

His diagnosis adds further uncertainty to an election cycle that's been among the most tumultuous in America's short but storied history. America's adversaries could look to exploit the US at a moment in which it's almost never been more vulnerable, spreading conspiracy theories in an effort to sow division and doubt across the US.

"We are now in the midst of a national security crisis," veteran reporter Carl Bernstein warned on CNN early Friday. "We have to be concerned about adversaries, particularly Russia, taking advantage of this situation for its own purposes. We have to think about possible cyber-manipulation of the markets."

"We don't know what his health is going to be. It's going to totally upend the end of the election campaign. So every aspect of our national life, in terms of stability, is now affected in waves that we could never envisioned a day ago. And I think we need to start from that perspective," Bernstein added.

Trump is also the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world. He has already wielded that authority in controversial ways both at home and abroad.

Though the White House stated on Friday that Trump's symptoms are mild, the fact he's come down with a virus that's killed over one million people worldwide raises significant questions about the future of the military. False rumors have already been spread online that the US launched "doomsday planes" because Trump has COVID-19.

"Our national security and command authority of our nuclear forces lies solely in hands of the President and the Sec Def. Essential that VP Pence has not also been exposed. The next in line to exercise military authority would be the Speaker of the House," retired four-star US Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey tweeted in response to Trump's diagnosis.

There is also the matter of Trump's credibility, or lack thereof. As president, Trump had made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims as of July, according to a Washington Post analysis.

The president — who at 74 is considered to be more vulnerable — is now infected with a deadly virus he spent months downplaying and lying about, which he admitted to journalist Bob Woodward in a March interview.

The White House says that Trump is still fit to carry out his duties, but polling has repeatedly shown that Americans do not trust the word of this administration — particularly when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.

The US is in a crisis the likes of which it has never seen. Millions were unemployed and over 207,000 Americans had died from COVID-19 prior to Trump getting the virus.

There are more questions than answers moving forward, and Americans have valid reasons to believe they cannot rely on the Trump administration to provide accurate, timely information.

October is going to be a long year for the US.