Nicklaus Knew Trump Endorsement “Would Cause Some Grief”, Suggests Hospitals May Be Fudging COVID-19 Death Data For Profit
/The Palm Beach Post’s Tom D’Angelo followed up with Jack Nicklaus following last week’s provocative endorsement for President Donald Trump’s re-election. D’Angelo says the idea to make the social media endorsement came from Vice President Mike Pence.
“I’m delighted to do that,” Nicklaus, the North Palm Beach resident, said Friday, speaking about the controversial post for the first time. “I said, ‘You know how I feel about him. He’s been very supportive to everything we’ve ever done. He’s asked for nothing. If I can just on my own do that, I would be happy to do it.’
“And I know it was going to cause me some grief. So, that’s what I did.”
Later in the story, D’Angelo reports Nicklaus’s claim of hospitals attempting to profit by false-reporting COVID-19 deaths, a recent claim of President Trump.
Nicklaus told a story about two people he knows whose parents died from something other than COVID and, according to Nicklaus, they were asked if the cause of death could be changed to COVID and declined.
“The hospital gets more money with COVID death than they do another death,’ Nicklaus said. “I’m sure there’s been a lot of that.
Politico has reported that Nicklaus lobbied Trump on behalf of the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami seeking $20 million toward a mobile children's hospital project.