Covid 19 coronavirus: President Donald Trump experiences ‘mild symptoms’

Key points:

• President Donald Trump is suffering from “mild symptoms” of Covid-19, the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans
• First lady Melania Trump also tested positive, although The Trump’s son Barron tested negative.
• All campaign events with the president have been postponed
• Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris tested negative
• Trump is 74 years old and obese, putting him at higher risk for serious complications from the virus that has infected more than 7 million people across the country.
• There is less than a month until Americans go to the polls after an electoral campaign marked by the minimization of the pandemic by Trump.
• Trump’s diagnosis has sparked fears of a destabilizing effect in Washington and around the world: The nation’s ‘doomsday planes’ flew in a show of force this morning to warn of potential enemies.

The White House said Friday that President Donald Trump was suffering from “mild symptoms” of Covid-19, as the virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans spread to the highest levels of the United States government just a month before the presidential elections.

The revelation came in a tweet from Trump around 1 a.m. after he returned from an afternoon political fundraiser without telling the crowd that he had been exposed to an aide with the disease that has infected millions in United States and has killed more than a million people around the world.

First lady Melania Trump also tested positive, the president said, and several others in the White House have as well, raising concerns that the White House or even Trump himself may have further spread the virus. The Trumps’ son Barron, who lives in the White House, tested negative.

All campaign events with Trump and his family have now been postponed, while Vice President Mike Pence will continue to campaign.

The president of the University of Notre Dame says he tested positive for the coronavirus less than a week after he attended a White House event without wearing a mask.

The Rev. John Jenkins sent an email Friday to college students and staff saying his symptoms are mild and he will continue to work from home. The announcement came after Jenkins apologized this week for not wearing a mask during Saturday’s rose garden ceremony for Trump Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who graduated from Notre Dame and is a teacher. of law.

Both Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris tested negative, according to their campaign. Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for the virus on Friday morning and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.

Trump has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of the virus, rarely wearing a protective mask and urging states and cities to “reopen” and reduce or eliminate closure rules.

Trump’s Supreme Court candidate, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was with him and many others on Saturday and has been in a Capitol meeting with lawmakers, also tested negative, the White House said.

Trump’s diagnosis is sure to have a destabilizing effect on Washington and around the world, raising questions about the extent to which the virus has spread to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Hours before Trump announced that he had contracted. the virus, the White House said a senior aide who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” Trump tweeted just before 1am. “We will finish this TOGETHER!”

While House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tried Friday to reassure the public that Trump was conducting business as usual, even as he confirmed that the White House knew that Hope Hicks, the aide, had tested positive before. that Trump attended a fundraiser Thursday in New Jersey.

“I can tell you in terms of Hope Hicks, we found out just as Marine One was taking off yesterday,” Meadows said. Several staff members were removed from the trip, but Trump did not cancel, even after he had been exposed to Hicks.

Many senior White House and administration officials were tested on Friday, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time, as it can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test. Officials from the White House Medical Unit were tracking the president’s contacts.

Trump was considering how he might address the nation or communicate with the American people on Friday, an official added.

Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House Thursday night and did not appear ill. He is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk for serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.

The president’s doctor said in a memo that Trump and the first lady, who is 50, “are doing well right now” and “plan to stay home inside the White House during their convalescence.”

Trump has been trying all year to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is over. At best, if you have few symptoms, which may include fever, cough and respiratory problems, it will probably force you to leave the campaign just a few weeks before the election and place your participation in the second presidential debate, scheduled for the October 15th. in Miami, in doubt.

Trump’s handling of the pandemic has already been a major flash point in his run against Biden, who spent much of the summer off campaign and at his home in Delaware citing concerns about the virus. Since then, Biden has resumed a more active campaign program, but with small and socially distant crowds. He also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for in Tuesday night’s debate.

“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said of Biden. “Every time you see him, he has a mask on. He could be talking 200 feet from me, and he appears with the largest mask I have ever seen.”

In a tweet on Friday morning, Biden said he and his wife “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a speedy recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the President and his family.”

World leaders offered the president and the first family their best wishes after his diagnosis, as governments used his case as a reminder for their citizens to wear masks and practice social distancing measures.

Trump’s announcement came hours after he confirmed that Hicks, one of his longest-serving and most trusted aides, had been diagnosed with the virus on Thursday. Hicks began to feel mild symptoms during the plane ride home from a rally in Minnesota Wednesday night, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal private information. She was isolated from other passengers on board the plane, the person said.

Hicks had been with Trump and other senior personnel aboard Marine One and Air Force One en route to that rally and had accompanied the president to Tuesday’s presidential debate in Cleveland, along with members of the Trump family. The Trump contingent removed their masks during the debate, in violation of the rules of the place.

Several White House staff members have previously tested positive for the virus, including Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller, national security adviser Robert O’Brien and one of the president’s personal aides. An RNC official confirmed Friday that President Ronna McDaniel learned that she had tested positive on Wednesday afternoon. She has been at her home in Michigan since last Saturday and did not attend the debate.

But Trump has always downplayed concerns about being personally vulnerable. For the most part, he has refused to adhere to basic public health guidelines, including those issued by his own administration, such as wearing face coverings in public and practicing social distancing. Instead, he has continued to hold campaign rallies that draw thousands of followers, often without a mask.

“I didn’t feel any vulnerability,” he told reporters in May.

Questions remain about why Trump and his aides continued to go to work and travel after Hicks fell ill. Trump traveled to New Jersey on Thursday for the fundraiser, exposing attendees to the virus. Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who were originally scheduled to join him on the trip, were replaced at the last minute by other attendees.

But McEnany still briefed the press Thursday morning and did not mention Hicks’ alleged illness, again raising concerns about the White House’s transparency.

It’s unclear where the Trumps and Hicks may have contracted the virus, but in an interview with Fox, Trump appeared to suggest that it may have been spread by someone in the military or law enforcement in a salute.

The White House began instituting a daily testing regimen for the president’s top advisers after previous positive cases close to the president. Anyone close to the president or vice president is also tested every day, including journalists.

Trump is far from the first world leader to test positive for the virus, which previously infected Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a week in hospital, including three nights in intensive care. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized last month while battling what he called a “hellish” case of COVID-19.

– AP