President Donald Trump has tested positive for coronavirus.
Washington, United States:
Offices are crowded, visitors are constant, and the boss doesn’t like people wearing masks – welcome to the White House, where President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
The revelation in the early hours of Friday that Trump and his wife Melania were positive sent staff on a frenzied cycle of contact tracing and emergency testing.
It’s not an easy job.
Crowds and travel
Avoid large groups, remain masked and socially distanced? Not for this president.
Trump has been holding a growing number of re-election rallies with thousands of people under pressure and in most cases without covering his face.
The last was in Minnesota on Wednesday, where he was joined by his close assistant Hope Hicks, who was revealed Thursday to test positive.
Another planned for Florida on Friday has been canceled.
Trump was scheduled to fly to a rally in Wisconsin, a state where infections are on the rise, on Saturday. Next week there was going to be a long-distance turn out west, including Arizona.
Many of these events take place outdoors, but last week Trump met indoors with hundreds of supporters in Florida and Georgia.
He also hosted a large gathering in the White House rose garden last Saturday to announce Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee.
The White House said Friday that it has since tested negative.
Tight spaces
The White House is less a typical government office building than a manor house converted for government use, with mazes of small offices and hallways.
Even the famous Oval Office gets crowded quickly, while to staff “office” often means little more than a cluttered desk in an alcove.
Trump’s powerful son-in-law Jared Kushner, for example, works in one of the smaller offices. But as he told Time magazine, it has a “good location,” right next to the president’s private dining room, one of Trump’s favorite spots.
Nearly 400 people work in the White House, in addition to journalists, who work from an even more crowded press wing. And while journalists strictly adhere to the mask guidelines, few of the staff do.
Trump has frequently poked fun at the masks, but says he is safe due to frequent testing.
The White House uses Abbott’s rapid test, which can give results in minutes, but the screening protocols are not waterproof.
For example, some journalists are being screened systematically, while others who have yet to do so still approach Trump when he answers questions on his Marine One helicopter.
Even Trump’s testing schedule is unclear.
In July, her spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said she was tested “several times a day.” Trump contradicted her by saying “on average, one test every two days, three days.”
Planes, helicopters, automobiles
If the White House is packed, try Air Force One, Marine One, or the limousine known as “the Beast,” all modes of transportation where guests are one step away from the President.
Hicks, 31, was with Trump when he flew to Cleveland on Tuesday for his first of three debates against Democratic challenger Joe Biden. She was with him again flying to Minnesota for the next day’s rally, including the short but extra short stage on Marine One.
The New York Times reported that Hicks began to feel ill on the plane ride back from Minnesota and self-quarantined while traveling on Air Force One.
Discussion topic
Trump’s controversial position on masks, which he has often downplayed or even mocked, could not have been more apparent than in Tuesday’s debate against Biden.
Trump’s family and entourage, including the first lady, arrived in masks at the Cleveland Clinic, which was hosting the event, but later removed their masks. Trump’s guests reportedly turned down an attempt by a doctor to hand out masks.
And according to Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who helped Trump pierce the debate a few days earlier, “no one was wearing masks in the room when we were getting ready.”
There were “about five or six people” in the debate prep room, Christie said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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