The announcement comes 32 days before the presidential election. The White House physician says Trump will “continue carrying out his duties without disruption.”
President Donald Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, a destabilizing event that comes after he spent months downplaying the severity of COVID-19, refusing to regularly wear a mask, undercutting the government’s top scientists, and so severely mismanaging the nation’s response to the pandemic that more than 200,000 Americans are now dead.
Since the very beginning of the pandemic that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide, Trump has said the coronavirus “will disappear,” that “it will go away,” and that it is “dying out,” as it has continued to spread across the US. Millions of Americans who support him have taken his lead throughout the pandemic, and some believe COVID-19 is a hoax and that wearing a mask is unnecessary.
“As too many Americans have done this year, @POTUS & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements,” Melania Trump tweeted.
Trump’s diagnosis comes after top aide Hope Hicks tested positive Thursday evening.
“The President and First Lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalensence,” Sean Conley, the physician to the president, wrote in a memo to the White House press secretary.
“The White House medical team and I will maintain a vigilant watch, and I appreciate the support provided by some of our country’s greatest medical professionals and institutions,” Conley added. “Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering, and I will keep you updated on any future developments.”
The president canceled his packed schedule of in-person events for Friday, which was to include a roundtable with his supporters at his Washington, DC hotel and then a MAGA rally in Orlando, Florida.
Trump’s getting the coronavirus is another in a long line of destabilizing events as the most hotly contested presidential election in modern memory draws near.
Many people who contract the virus have limited health concerns, outside of a cough, high fever, or shortness of breath; some people are not symptomatic at all. Trump, who is 74 and medically overweight, is at higher risk of becoming seriously ill, according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Older people have a higher risk of being hospitalized and dying as a result of COVID-19.
It is not immediately certain what Trump having the virus will mean for how his administration functions in the short-term.
Under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, if the president determines he is incapacitated, the vice president can take over his responsibilities as “acting president.”
Trump has been holding regular large-scale campaign rallies over the last month as he fights for reelection against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. At those rallies, social distancing is largely ignored and many supporters do not wear masks. In Washington, he’s resumed regular White House news briefings, ostensibly to provide updates on the US fight against the coronavirus but often primarily to attack Democrats and reporters. At those conferences, he has regularly said reporters are difficult to hear because of their face coverings and asked them to take off their masks.
Trump is said to be regularly tested for the virus. He first tested negative for COVID-19 on March 14, after he reluctantly took a test following close contact with multiple foreign officials who had tested positive for the virus.
The president’s positive coronavirus test follows eight months of leadership that has been defined by confusing messages to the public, open disavowals of his own top health experts, overt political pressure on federal agencies, and a blatant disregard for the scientific consensus on everything from masks to testing to treatments. In that time, more than 200,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.
Up until the stock market began to collapse in early March, Trump had aggressively played down the threat the coronavirus posed to Americans as it spread through Asia and Europe, frequently saying throughout late January and February that the US would be “fine,” claiming that warm weather would make the virus disappear, and praising his administration’s response.
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