CORONAVIRUS
White House says Trump will be at Walter Reed for
‘the next few days’
The president, who downplayed the virus in its early
stages, has now become the world’s highest-profile patient of a disease that
has killed more than 1 million people.
By NICK
NIEDZWIADEK, QUINT FORGEY and MATTHEW CHOI
10/01/2020
09:00 PM EDT
Updated:
10/02/2020 07:37 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/01/trump-hope-hicks-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-424781
President
Donald Trump was taken to Walter Reed Military Medical Center early Friday
evening and will spend the “next few days” there, the White House said after
Trump announced earlier in the day that he had tested positive for Covid-19.
The
president was seen walking on the White House South Lawn to Marine One under
his own power around 6:15 p.m. and sporting a mask — notable given the
president‘s aversion to wearing one in public and his frequent mockery of his
Democratic rival, Joe Biden, and others for doing so even when they are far
from others. The president landed at 6:29 p.m., and he posted a video to his
Twitter account of him assuring people that he was in good condition.
White House
press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the visit to the hospital was “out of an
abundance of caution.”
“President
Trump remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms, and has been working
throughout the day,” McEnany said. The White House later announced there were
no public events on Trump's schedule for Saturday.
Sean
Conley, the president’s physician, said in a statement before the trip to
Walter Reed that Trump was “fatigued but in good spirits.“
In a memo
released by the White House, Conley said that the president had completed an
infusion of monoclonal antibodies produced by Regeneron, and was taking other
medication, including aspirin, zinc and vitamin D. It made no mention of
hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial that Trump frequently promoted — and took
himself for two weeks as a precautionary measure earlier this year.
First lady
Melania Trump is displaying “only a mild cough and headache,” Conley’s memo
says. The doctor also wrote that the rest of Trump’s family had tested negative
on Friday and that the first couple were being advised by a team of experts
about their next steps.
Earlier in
the day, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the president was
experiencing “mild symptoms,” and refused to say whether he withheld
information about a top aide to the president who also tested positive in recent
days.
The remarks
from the president’s most senior staffer came after Trump announced on Twitter
early Friday that he and the first lady had become infected 32 days ahead of
the November election. Just hours before Trump’s tweet, news broke that Hope Hicks,
a counselor to the president and one his closest aides, had come down with the
disease, as well.
“The
president does have mild symptoms,” Meadows told reporters Friday morning
outside the White House. “And as we look to try to make sure that not only his
health and safety and welfare is good, we continue to look at that for all of
the American people.”
The
president and the first lady “remain in good spirits,” Meadows said, and Trump
is “very energetic.” Physicians with the White House medical unit “continue to
monitor both his health and the health of the first lady,” Meadows said.
Trump’s
immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, wished Trump and the first lady a speedy
recovery during a virtual fundraiser for Biden.
“It’s
important, I think, for all of us to remember that even when we’re in the midst
of big political battles with issues that have a lot at stake, that we’re all
Americans, and we’re all human beings and that we, we want to make sure that
everybody is healthy,” Obama said on Friday.
Biden also
extended well wishes to Trump and others in his orbit who have recently been
diagnosed with the disease — which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000
people in the U.S. so far — during a campaign stop in Michigan that was delayed
so the former vice president could be tested after having shared a debate stage
with Trump earlier this week.
“It’s a
bracing reminder to all of us we need to take this virus seriously,” Biden said
in Grand Rapids at an outdoor event.
The
constellation of infections has quickly extended beyond just the president and
those closest to him. The White House Correspondents Association revealed that
at least three journalists have tested positive for Covid-19, as have president
of the University of Notre Dame — who visited the White House last weekend for
the nomination of alumna Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court — and 11
people involved with Tuesday’s debate in Cleveland.
Trump had
tweeted early Friday that he and the first lady “will begin our quarantine and
recovery process immediately.”
Vice
President Mike Pence’s office announced Friday that he and second lady Karen
Pence had tested negative for Covid-19.
The
president’s positive test threatens to transform the final month of a turbulent
campaign that has seen Trump tout his administration’s management of the
pandemic as a success — despite surging case counts in parts of the country,
shuttered schools and businesses, and widespread division over the seriousness
of the disease.
“I just
want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight, and next year will be one
of the greatest years in the history of our country,” Trump said Thursday
evening in a prerecorded message to the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial
Foundation Dinner.
Compounding
the uncertainty surrounding the homestretch of the campaign, the Republican
National Committee announced Friday that chair Ronna McDaniel had also tested
positive for Covid-19.
For Republicans,
McDaniel’s diagnosis now means that their presidential nominee and top party
official could both be constrained to a limited campaign schedule in the coming
weeks.
In a
statement on Friday afternoon, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien announced that
all previously scheduled campaign events involving the president “are in the
process of being moved to virtual events or are being temporarily postponed.”
Planned
events featuring members of Trump’s family “are also being temporarily
postponed,” Stepien said, while Pence “plans on resuming his scheduled campaign
events.”
Trump’s
tweet about his diagnosis immediately raised questions about whether the
74-year-old president’s existing health conditions — his latest physician’s
report recorded him as technically obese — will put him at an increased risk of
developing serious complications from the coronavirus.
During his
last physical, Conley reported that the president “remains in very good health
overall,” with a cholesterol level and blood pressure within normal ranges.
Trump does, however, take medication for prior issues with high cholesterol.
Earlier
this year, Trump was closely monitored in case he developed an irregular
heartbeat while he took a two-week course of hydroxychloroquine, an
anti-malarial drug he promoted as a possible treatment for the coronavirus
despite no conclusive evidence of its efficacy.
Melania
Trump, 50, also falls within an age range with higher risk of
coronavirus-related complications. The disease can have wide-ranging effects on
different people, even at an advanced age — from relatively mild symptoms to
devastating breathing problems.
Trump tests
positive
President
Trump will be at Walter Reed Military Medical Center for the “next few days,”
the White House said on Friday.
It is
unclear whether Trump caught the coronavirus directly from Hicks, who had
traveled with him Tuesday for his debate against Biden in Cleveland.
Hicks
showed symptoms and received her test result early Thursday, but few people in the
White House knew about her diagnosis until later in the afternoon, according to
a person familiar with the situation.
Hicks was
seen traveling Tuesday on Air Force One without a mask, and she accompanied the
president Wednesday to his rally in Minnesota.
Only a
small group of White House officials were aware of Hicks’ positive test
Thursday morning, but news spread to more aides inside the West Wing later in
the day.
Still,
business at the White House continued as usual. Press secretary Kayleigh
McEnany held a briefing in the late morning. And in the afternoon, the
president flew to his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., for a fundraising
round table and reception with high-dollar donors.
Trump
traveled with a smaller group of aides for the short trip, including White
House Presidential Personnel Office director John McEntee and deputy press
secretary Judd Deere.
Meadows
told reporters Friday that several “core staff” at the White House had already
received negative Covid-19 test results, including Kushner and deputy chief of
staff for communications Dan Scavino.
“At the
same time,” Meadows said, “I fully expect that as this virus continues to go
on, other people in the White House will certainly have a positive test result.
And we’ve got the mitigation plan in place to make sure that the government not
only continues to move forward, but the work of the American people continues
to move forward.”
Pressed on
when he found out about Hicks testing positive — and whether he concealed the
news of her diagnosis until after Trump’s fundraiser — Meadows said he was “not
going to get into the tick-tock” of events.
“I can tell
you, in terms of Hope Hicks, we discovered that right as Marine One was taking
off yesterday,” Meadows said. “We actually pulled some of the people that had
been traveling and in close contact.”
Meadows
said the news of Hicks testing positive began trickling out because “we had
already started the contact tracing just prior to” Trump’s fundraiser.
As for
Trump’s positive test, “last night — even in the early hours of this morning —
the minute we got a confirmatory test on the president, we felt like it was
important to get the news out there at that time,” Meadows said.
The White
House canceled the president’s travel plans minutes after Trump’s tweet. He had
been scheduled to travel to Florida for a rally Friday night.
Asked when
Trump learned of Hicks testing positive, McEnany also deflected.
“I don’t
know the answer to that,” she told Fox News in an interview. “I’m not going to
get into an exact timeline. But it’s safe to say the president took
precautions.”
Discussing
the possibility of a national address by the president, McEnany said she would
not “confirm exactly what you’ll see from” Trump, but said the White House was
“exploring a number of different ways” for the president to communicate with
Americans.
McEnany
also declined to elaborate on whether Trump would participate in the next
presidential debate on Oct. 15, which falls within his recommended quarantine
window.
“We haven’t
gotten that far just yet,” she said. “This morning and this afternoon, we’re
focused on the president.”
McEnany
said the president had spoken on Friday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), key players in the ongoing
Supreme Court confirmation fight. Trump also talked to Meadows about emergency
declarations and stimulus legislation, she said.
White House
economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News in an interview on Friday that
Trump was “doing just fine” and only had a “very moderate case” of the
coronavirus.
“The
president was kind of barking out orders for all of us, giving us tasks this
morning to follow through [on],” Kudlow said, before acknowledging that he had
not spoken to Trump since Thursday evening.
The
president has been widely criticized for his dismissive remarks about the
coronavirus in the outbreak’s early stages and at other points throughout the
year.
In
February, he told The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward in February that he was
“playing … down” the disease even though it was possibly five times “more
deadly” than the flu. Publicly, however, Trump compared Covid-19 to the flu and
assured the public that, “like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Trump has
faced similar rebukes for his cavalier attitude toward coronavirus precautions.
His campaign rallies often feature large crowds of supporters tightly packed
together and not wearing face coverings.
He has also
resumed indoor campaign events, even though public health officials advise
against crowding in enclosed spaces. During his Republican National Convention
acceptance speech in August, roughly 1,500 attendees gathered on the White
House lawn, many without masks.
Trump has
vacillated on his stated support for basic coronavirus safety guidelines, such
as mask-wearing when in public and around other people, and has railed against
mask mandates issued by state and local officials. At the debate this week,
Trump even mocked Biden for wearing masks so often.
“I don’t
wear masks like him,” Trump said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He
could be speaking 200 feet away from them, and he shows up with the biggest
mask I’ve ever seen.”
Multiple
members of the president’s entourage declined to wear masks during the debate,
despite requests from the staff of the Cleveland Clinic, which was hosting the
event.
Former New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was at the White House last weekend to advise
the president in debate preparations, said on Friday in an interview on ABC
News that he and others working with Trump did not wear masks.
Trump’s
infection is the latest piece of evidence that the coronavirus does not spare
the powerful. Numerous world leaders have contracted the disease.
Prime
Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spent three nights in intensive care in April
after he contracted Covid-19 and experienced trouble breathing. President Jair
Bolsonaro of Brazil also tested positive in July.
The
coronavirus has infiltrated other elite political circles. Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife tested positive after attending a large event in
London.
Elsewhere,
the Australian home affairs minister and Iran’s deputy health minister were
just two of numerous international government officials who have been infected
since the pandemic’s outbreak.
Still,
Trump’s diagnosis will raise serious questions about whether the White House’s
coronavirus protocols were adequate — and whether the West Wing took the threat
of the virus seriously enough.
Hicks is
one of Trump’s highest-ranking aides to have tested positive for the virus. National
security adviser Robert O’Brien tested positive in July, as did a number of
Secret Service agents.
Katie
Miller, a spokesperson for Pence, tested positive in May, and a Brazilian
dinner companion of the president tested positive in March.
After the
earlier diagnoses of Miller and a military valet, the White House increased the
frequency of its testing of the president, the vice president and their top
aides.
The White
House press office said staffers also regularly deep-cleaned workspaces and
conducted regular temperature checks of anyone around the president.
Daniel
Lippman, Meridith McGraw, Nancy Cook and David Lim contributed to this report.
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