President Donald Trump said early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, a stunning announcement that plunges the country deeper into uncertainty just a month before the presidential election.
Trump, who has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans, said he and Mrs. Trump were quarantining. The White House physician said the president is expected to continue carrying out his duties "without disruption" while recovering.
Still, Trump's diagnosis was sure to have a destabilizing effect in Washington, raising questions about how far the virus had spread through the highest levels of the U.S. government. Hours before Trump announced he had contracted the virus, the White House said a top aide who had travelled 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 1 a.m. "We will get through this TOGETHER!"
Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and did not appear visibly ill. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.
The president's physician said in a memo that Trump and the first lady, who is 50, "are both well at this time" and "plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence."
The diagnosis marks a devastating blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them.
In the best of cases, if he develops no symptoms, which can include fever, cough and breathing trouble, it will force him off the campaign trail just weeks before the election.
Trump's handling of the pandemic has already been a major flashpoint in his race against Democrat Joe Biden, who spent much of the summer off the campaign trail and at his home in Delaware because of the virus.
Biden has since resumed a more active campaign schedule, but with small, socially distanced crowds. He also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for at Tuesday night’s debate.
Comments
Terrible news for Trump or a set up for a miracle recovery. Color me suspicious.
My first thought as well. But if Trump, like the Brazilian president, comes through this with little or no symptoms it will be a "devastating blow" to the Democrats. I've engaged on-line and in person with many Trump supporters (surprising how many are in Canada) and this will just fuel their belief that Covid has been an overblown hoax and only really a danger to those who were already very ill. Trump will be re-elected through a combination of the blindness of his base, the greed of the very wealthy, the willful blindness of the Christian right and the corruption of the election process as well as a corrupt judiciary. Trump is like Nero, fiddling while parts of the U.S. burn and flood.
you forgot Boris Johnson and Jair bolsonaro more aptly lumped with the tRump as an agent of chaos and utter ungovernance who tested positive, while down playing the seriousness of possible effects, up to and including death and lifelong vascular compromise,.
I wish tRump and AVa Braw... I mean Melania as much compassion as they have shown to others they are charged with protecting. and haven't cared to.
Fake News! Who knows, he’s such a lying manipulating clown, I do not wish him well.
He deserves it.