President Trump and first lady test positive for the coronavirus
LA TimesPresident Trump said early Friday that he and the first lady had tested positive for the coronavirus. “We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump’s positive test came just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest advisors, had tested positive Thursday after several days of traveling with the president. White House physician Sean P. Conley, in a letter made public early Friday, said the president and First Lady Melania Trump “are both well at this time and plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.” He added that he expects Trump to continue his duties as president “without disruption.” The announcement, coming just 32 days until election day, amounts to more than just another bombshell in a country now accustomed to constant chaos in its politics. Just hours before he announced his positive test result, in a pre-recorded message to the New York Archdiocese’s Al Smith dinner, Trump claimed that “the end of the coronavirus pandemic is in sight.” On Thursday evening after news reports revealed Hicks’ diagnosis, Trump said during a phone interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity that he and the first lady had begun “a quarantine process,” although he did not offer further details. And Trump’s positive test could force several senior campaign and White House aides into quarantine with just more than a month left before the election.