As world freaks out about coronavirus, Trump hosts 45-minute meeting with cast of Russiagate play

As the coronavirus crisis continues, President Trump reportedly spent almost a full hour on Thursday meeting with the folks behind a play about the "Deep State."

That's according to The Daily Beast, which on Thursday reported that Trump had a 45-minute meeting with the playwright and actors behind FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers, a play based on text message exchanges between former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, as well as their congressional testimony. An Indiegogo page for the play last year described it as showing "how they, and their Deep State colleagues, planned to take down the president of the United States." The FBI fired Strzok, who was part of the FBI's Russia probe, over his anti-Trump texts in 2018.

Trump apparently hasn't seen the actual play, which is on YouTube, but he evidently doesn't need to to provide his full endorsement, according to playwright Phelim McAleer.

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"He loves it, he loves the play," McAleer said.

Trump has frequently targeted Page and Strzok while claiming bias against him in the Russia investigation, accusing them of "treason." In December, Page called Trump's attacks "very intimidating" and said that "I know there's no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason."

The Oval Office meeting with Trump on Thursday, which also included actors Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson, was reportedly only supposed to last 15 minutes, but Trump just couldn't resist keeping it going for another half-hour, with McAleer saying the president did "most of the talking."