[ad_1]
President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19, turning an already tense US election upside down, but his doctor described him on Friday as “fine” and capable of performing his duties while in quarantine.
Trump, 74, first announced on Twitter that he and first lady Melania Trump, 50, had tested positive for the virus.
“We will get out of this TOGETHER!” he wrote.
The extraordinary setback for Trump had immediate political consequences just 31 days before Election Day, forcing him to cancel campaign trips and adding new volatility to an already fraught contest.
Trump’s challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, is way ahead in the polls and has made criticism of the Republican handling of the coronavirus, and the frequent downplaying of the severity of the pandemic, a key issue.
Trump, in response, has opted for an increasingly aggressive program of campaign rallies across the country. The events, which according to him demonstrate his true political strength, bring together thousands of people, often without masks and sometimes in contravention of local norms.
That strategy is now in question, and the White House immediately canceled a planned campaign rally in the crucial state of Florida on Friday afternoon.
It seemed certain that Trump would have to cancel a trip scheduled for this weekend in Wisconsin, another battlefield. He was also expected to travel frequently next week, including longer distances to western states.
A second televised debate with Biden is scheduled for October 15. Technically obese and in his 70s, Trump is in a higher risk category for coronavirus patients.
Trump’s official physician, Sean Conley, said in a statement that the president and his wife “are doing well at this time.”
“They plan to stay home in the White House during their convalescence,” he said. However, “I hope the president will continue to serve without interruption while he recovers.”
Close helper catches virus
The shocking news came just after it was reported Thursday that one of Trump’s closest advisers, Hope Hicks, contracted the virus.
Hicks, 31, traveled with Trump to Cleveland for his first debate with Biden on Tuesday. She was with him again for a campaign rally in Minnesota on Wednesday.
With Hicks sharing Trump’s Air Force One plane and the even narrower confines of the Marine One helicopter, speculation immediately arose that Trump and possibly many others in his close entourage were exposed.
Despite Hicks’ diagnosis, Trump took another Air Force One trip Thursday to meet with donors in New Jersey.
It was only Thursday night that Trump confirmed the media reports on Hicks while giving an interview to Fox News. He announced that he had been tested, but did not say whether he had received the results.
“You know I spend a lot of time with Hope, and also the first lady,” Trump said.
Hicks is the highest-ranking White House aide who was announced to have contracted Covid-19.
In May, Vice President Mike Pence’s spokeswoman and wife of the writer of Trump’s speech, Katie Miller, contracted the virus. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien contracted the virus and went into quarantine in July.
Few with masks
Trump says the United States has left behind the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans, and rarely wears a mask, noting that it receives frequent testing.
Yet its own health experts have often given less optimistic assessments of the state of the pandemic in the world’s richest country.
And Trump has been heavily criticized for large rallies where few fans wear masks. He himself has given mixed signals to the public about the need to wear masks.
Rather, Biden has run a low-key campaign with social distancing at most events, without large gatherings, and with conspicuous use of his mask wherever he goes.
In their first debate Tuesday, the candidates were tested and spent the angry, often chaotic 90 minutes standing close to each other. The Trump family and his followers in the audience did not wear masks.
White House spokesman Judd Deere previously said that “the president takes the health and safety of himself and all who work to support him and the American people very seriously.”
Deere said the White House makes sure to follow procedures “to limit exposure to Covid-19 to the greatest extent possible, both in the compound and when the president is away.”
READ NEXT: #TrumpHasCovid: The best reactions to Donald and Melania’s positive tests
For more news your way, download The Citizen app to ios Y Android.
[ad_2]
