President Trump, First Lady test positive for COVID-19
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19, the president announced overnight.
In a tweet posted around midnight Central Time, the president said: "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 diagnosis was confirmed by the White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, who said that both are "well" at this time.
It came just hours after it was confirmed that one of Trump's advisers, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for the virus.
Hicks had been among the advisers that traveled with the president on Air Force One this week, including during the president's visit to Minnesota on Wednesday, where he attended a private fundraiser at the home of Marty Davis in Shorewood before holding a rally in Duluth.
KOCO reports that Hicks began displaying symptoms on Air Force One as they left Minnesota, and was quarantined from others aboard the plane.
Trump told FOX News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that he and the First Lady were waiting for their own results following Hicks' positive test, suggesting she contracted it on the campaign trail as she greeted soldiers and law enforcement.
"She's a very warm person. She has a hard time, when soldiers and law enforcement comes up to her, you know, she wants to treat them great, not say, 'Stay away, I can't get near you.' It's a very, very tough disease," he said.
With the president's convalescing at the White House, it means a series of campaign stops will be canceled.
He had been due to be in La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin, this Saturday, though the La Crosse event had been moved to Janesville even before the president's diagnosis, which came after the La Crosse mayor had urged the campaign to cancel the rally due to the high levels of COVID-19 in the region, with Wisconsin one of the country's biggest hotspots right now.
CNN reports that hours prior to confirming the diagnosis, President Trump had told a virtual fundraiser 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."
The president also attended an in-person fundraiser in New Jersey Thursday, after Hicks had started displaying symptoms.
The uncertainty presented by the president's diagnosis caused stock market futures to drop overnight, and it remains to be seen whether any more of the president's entourage test positive.
His Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, is expected to be tested on Friday, having been opposite the president during Tuesday night's debate.
