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Affected by Covid-19, US President Donald Trump, fatigued and feverish, was airlifted to a military hospital on Friday night (local time), where he was administered remdesivir after treatment with an experimental drug at the White House .
In a day of violent events on Friday, the president, who has spent months downplaying the threat of the virus, was forced to cancel all campaign events a month before the elections while fighting a virus that has killed more than 205,000. Americans and it is affecting others. in its orbit as well.
The White House said Trump’s expected stay of “a few days” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was a precaution and that he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to fulfill his official duties.
Trump left the White House Friday night wearing a mask and gave reporters a thumbs up, but did not speak before boarding Marine One. Crew members, Secret Service agents, and White House personnel they covered their faces to protect themselves from the president aboard the helicopter.
In a video recorded before leaving for Walter Reed, Trump said: “I think I’m doing very well, but we are going to make sure things work out.” He remained fully president, all authority intact.
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I’m doing fine, I think! Thank you all. LOVE !!! “she wrote in her first tweet from the hospital on Friday night.
Just a month before the presidential election, Trump’s revelation that he was positive for the virus came in a tweet around 1 a.m. Friday after he returned from a political fundraiser Thursday afternoon. He had run ahead of the event, saying nothing to the crowd, even though he knew that he had been exposed to an attendee with the disease that has infected millions in the United States and killed more than a million worldwide.
Alex Brandon / AP
United States President Donald Trump greets members of the media as he leaves the White House to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after testing positive for Covid-19.
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. She said in her video that her wife was doing very well.
Several administration officials pointed to Saturday’s announcement in Rose Garden of Trump’s nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court as the possible connection between the cases that spanned Washington on Friday. Former White House aide Kellyanne Conway, president of the University of Notre Dame, and at least two Republican lawmakers who were also present at the event, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, announced Friday. they had tested positive and were isolating. .
Also tested positive: Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh confirmed the news, first reported by Politico, that Stepien received a diagnosis on Friday and is experiencing “mild flu-like symptoms.” Stepien, who joined Trump in Tuesday’s first presidential debate, plans to self-quarantine until he recovers.
Trump’s diagnosis came during an already turbulent period in Washington and around the world, with the United States locked in a heated presidential election amid the human and economic toll of the virus. All of Trump’s immediate campaign events were canceled, and his next debate with Democrat Joe Biden, scheduled for Oct. 15, is now in doubt.
Trump has tried all year, and as recently as Wednesday, to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is over, and he 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. Until he tested positive, he continued to hold campaign rallies that drew thousands of supporters, often without a mask.
“I didn’t feel any vulnerability,” he told reporters in May. With elections looming in about a month, he’s urging states and cities to “reopen” and reduce or eliminate closing rules despite continued virus outbreaks.
The White House tried to maintain a business atmosphere as usual on Friday.
“President Trump is in a good mood, has mild symptoms and has been working all day,” said press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “As a precaution and on the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will work from the presidential offices in Walter Reed for the next few days.”
The president’s doctor said in a memo that Trump received a dose of an experimental antibody combination from Regeneron that is in clinical trials. Navy commander Dr. Sean Conley said Trump “remains fatigued but in good spirits” and that a team of experts was evaluating both the president and the first lady on next steps.
On Friday night, Conley posted an update saying that Trump “is fine” and “does not need supplemental oxygen” but said that “in consultation with specialists we have chosen to initiate therapy with Remdesivir,” an antiviral drug.
“You have completed your first dose and are resting comfortably,” the doctor wrote.
The first lady, who is 50, has a “mild cough and headache,” Conley reported, and the rest of the first family, including the Trumps’ son Barron, who lives in the White House, tested negative.
Trump 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 across the country.
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. Pence would resume his campaign program after his test.
Barrett, who was with Trump and many others on Saturday and has been in a Capitol meeting with lawmakers, also tested negative, the White House said. It was confirmed that he had a mild case of Covid earlier this year and has now recovered.
Very early Friday, after returning from Thursday afternoon’s fundraiser in New Jersey, Trump shockingly tweeted: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately We’ll get through it TOGETHER! “
Hours earlier, the White House confirmed that a high-level aide who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed Friday that the White House knew Hope Hicks, the aide, had tested positive before Trump attended the fundraiser.
“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 and there was no direct evidence that their illness was related to his.
Andrew Harnik / AP
Counsel to President Hope Hicks (center) is among White House officials who have tested positive for Covid-19.
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’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. “Every time you see him, he has a mask on. He could be talking 200 feet away from me and he shows up wearing the largest mask I’ve ever seen.” “
In a tweet Friday morning, Biden said that 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 their diagnosis, and governments used the case as a reminder for their citizens to wear masks and practice social distancing measures.
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.
It’s unclear where the Trumps or Hicks 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 fighting what he called a “hellish” case of Covid-19.
