UPDATE, 10/5/20, 7:16pm ET: Donald Trump has left the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland on Oct. 5, where he was being hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 four days prior. Right before leaving the hospital, the POTUS caused a huge commotion on Twitter for telling people not to be “afraid” of the coronavirus. “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!,” Trump wrote (see the message below).
UPDATE, 10/2/20, 6:24pm ET: Just a day after testing positive for COVID-19, President Donald Trump is being taken to hospital. The 74-year-old was taken to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland after showing symptoms of the deadly virus, including a low-grade fever, cough and others. “As of this afternoon the President remains fatigued but in good spirits. He’s being evaluated by a team of experts and together we’ll be making recommendations to the President and First Lady in regards to next best steps,” his physician Dr. Sean P. Conley said in a statement.
UPDATE, 10/2/20, 12:22pm ET: A Biden campaign official confirms that former Vice President Joe Biden has tested negative for COVID-19 after coming in contact with President Trump at the September 29 presidential debate. Biden himself tweeted his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, has also tested negative. “I’m happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID. Thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands.”
UPDATE, 10/2/20, 11:32am ET: Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Barron Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner have all tested negative for COVID-19 per the White House. Former Vice President Joe Biden sent his well wishes to the Trumps on Twitter amid reports that he went to get tested for the virus, as well: “Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family,” he tweeted.
Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, tweeted, “Doug and I join Joe Biden and Dr. Biden in wishing President Trump and the First Lady a full and speedy recovery. We’re keeping them and the entire Trump family in our thoughts.”
ORIGINAL: President Donald Trump‘s disdain for wearing masks to protect against the spread of COVID-19 has come back to haunt him. Trump and his wife Melania, 50, have tested positive for COVID-19. “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!,” the president tweeted on Oct. 1.
Melania followed shortly afterwards with her own Twitter announcement. “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. Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together,” Melania wrote, just five months after her husband doubted that he would wear a mask despite CDC recommendations.
This news arrived shortly after Trump revealed that his close aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for the virus. The POTUS tweeted earlier on Thursday night, “Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”
Hicks travelled with Trump on Tuesday aboard Air Force One to Ohio for his first presidential debate against Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden, which took place on Sept. 29. Ironically, Trump had mocked Biden for always wearing a face mask (meanwhile, the president said, “I put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it”). After the debate, Hope was with Trump the following day on a campaign stop in Duluth, MN, and began feeling mild symptoms of COVID-19 on the flight back to Washington D.C. She tested positive for the virus this morning.
It wasn’t just the president who Hicks was in contact with, as while leaving the White House to head to Minnesota aboard POTUS’ Marine One helicopter, she was in the company of the president’s other advisers Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and Dan Scavino, according to ABC News. It is unclear if those men will also go into quarantine as well. Hicks was photographed deplaning AF-1 in Cleveland on Sept. 29 without a protective face mask.
“She tested positive and I just went out with a test…so whether we quarantine or whether we have it, I don’t know. So I just went for a test and we’ll see what happens. Who knows?…We spend a lot of time with Hope, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity during a live interview on Oct. 1.
Trump continued, “It is very, very hard when you are with people from the military, or from law enforcement, and they come over to you, and they want to hug you, and they want to kiss you because we really have done a good job for them. You get close, and things happen. I was surprised to hear with Hope, but she is a very warm person with them. She knows there’s a risk, but she is young.”
The president had a full re-election campaign schedule planned before testing positive for the coronavirus, so it is unclear what this will mean to getting back on the road. He had a Make America Great Again rally scheduled in Sanford, Florida on Friday, Oct. 2. The following day he was supposed to travel to Janesville, WI for a 12:30pm rally in local time, before heading east to Green Bay, WI for a 3pm rally the same day.