Covid- positive: US President and First Lady
After months of downplaying pandemic, positive test could prove devastating to President’s re- election hopes
United States President Donald Trump and the first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and escalating the crisis posed by a pandemic that has already killed more than 207,000 Americans and devastated the economy.
“Tonight, @ FLOTUS and I tested positive for Covid- 19,” Trump wrote on Twitter yesterday. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”
The President’s physician, Sean Conley, said Trump was “well” without saying if he was experiencing symptoms and added the President would stay i solated in the White House for now. “Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption.”
Other aides would not say whether he was experiencing symptoms, but people at the White House noticed his voice sounded raspy yesterday, although it was not clear that it was abnormal for him, especially given the number of campaign rallies he has been holding lately.
Trump got the test result after one of his closest advisers, Hope Hicks, became infected, bringing the virus into his inner circle and underscoring the difficulty of containing it even with the resources of a President.
He has for months played down the severity of the virus and told a political dinner just a day earlier that “the end of the pandemic is in sight”.
Trump’s positive test result could pose immediate difficulties for the future of his campaign against former Vice- President Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, with just 32 days before the election November 3.
Even if Trump, 74, stays asymptomatic, he will have to withdraw from the campaign trail and stay isolated for an unknown period. If he gets sick, it could raise questions on whether he should stay on the ballot.
Even if he does not become seriously ill, the positive test could prove devastating to his political fortunes given his months of diminishing the seriousness of the pandemic even as the virus was still killing about 1000 Americans daily.
He He has scorned scientists, saying they were mistaken on the severity of the situation.
Trump has refused for months to wear a mask in public on all but a few occasions and repeatedly questioned their effectiveness while mocking Biden for wearing one. Trailing in the polls, the President in recent weeks increasingly held crowded campaign events in defiance of public health guidelines and sometimes state and local governments.
When he accepted the nomination on the final day of the Republican National Convention, he invited more than 1000 supporters to the White House South Lawn and has held multiple rallies around the country since, often with hundreds and even thousands of people jammed into tight spaces, many if not most maskless.
The positive test will undercut his effort to change the subject away from a pandemic that polls show most Americans believe he has mishandled and on to political terrain he considers more favourable.
He has sought to focus voter attention instead on violence in cities, his Supreme Court nomination, mail- in ballots and Biden’s ties with liberals.
Aside from the campaign, the symbolism of an infected President could rattle governors and business owners trying to assess when and how to reopen or keep open shops, schools, parks, beaches, restaurants, factories and other workplaces.
Eager to restore a semblance of normal life before the election, Trump has dismissed health concerns to demand that schools reopen, college football resume play and businesses resume full operation.
In his eighth decade of life, Trump belongs to the age category deemed most vulnerable to the virus. Eight out of every 10 US Covid deaths have been among those 65 and older.
A variety of people around Trump were previously infected by the virus, including most recently Robert C O’Brien, his national security adviser who had a mild case before returning to work in August. Others infected include Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jnr’s girlfriend; a White House valet; Katie Miller, Vice- President Mike Pence’s press secretary; as well as some Secret Service agents, campaign advance workers and a Marine in the President’s helicopter unit.
Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate and political ally of Trump’s, died of the virus in July after attending the President’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Cain, like many, was seen not masked at least part of the time.
Trump has repeatedly expressed confidence about his own health, saying he was not concerned about being exposed despite various close calls.
“I’m on a stage that’s very far away, and so, I’m not at all concerned,” he said last month, brushing off worries about crowded rallies.
Behind the scenes, though, the self- described germophobe was angry in the spring that his valet, who is among those who serve him food, had not been wearing a mask before testing positive, according to people in touch with him. Trump privately expressed irritation with people who got too close to him.
According to the President, he began taking the hydroxychloroquine anti- malaria drug proactively around this time and later said it caused no adverse effects.
While the coronavirus i s much deadlier than the flu, the vast majority of people infected by it recover, especially if there is no underlying condition, but the threat climbs with age. If Trump becomes symptomatic, it could take him weeks to recover.
Under the 25th Amendment, a medically incapacitated President has the option of temporarily transferring power to the Vice- President and can reclaim his authority whenever he deems himself fit for duty.
Under the Presidential Succession Act, if both Trump and Pence were unable to serve, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California would step in. Early this year the White House said it had no plan for such an eventuality.
News of his infection drew instant reactions around the world of shock, sympathy, undisguised glee and, of course, the outrage and curiosity that follow much of what Trump does.
Trump’s announcement, and the deep uncertainty that accompanied it, permeated the global news cycle.
US stock futures and Asian shares fell. The future contracts for both the S& P 500 and the Dow industrials lost 1.9%. Oil prices slipped. Stock prices in Japan and Australia tumbled.
“To say this potentially could be a big deal i s an understatement,” Rabobank said in a commentary.
World leaders and officials were quick to weigh in, and there was both sympathy and something approaching schadenfreude.
“Wishing my friend @ POTUS @ realDonaldTrump and @ FLOTUS a quick recovery and good health,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. US- India ties have prospered under Trump, and India is seen as a partner to balance China’s growing weight in Asia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was hospitalised for a week in April after he contracted Covid- 19, wished Trump a “speedy recovery.”
Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said it demonstrates “no one is immune”.
Trump’s positive test was the most searched topic in China on social media app Weibo, with most comments mocking or critical. One user darkly joked that Trump had finally tweeted something positive.
I’m on a stage that’s very far away, and so, I’m not at all concerned. Donald Trump, brushing off worries about crowded rallies.