Administration officials said Friday that President Donald Trump has had mild symptoms but will continue to work after testing positive for the Coronavirus, as the White House and the presidential election campaign scramble to adapt to the BOMBSHELL development.
Officials said President Trump is not incapacitated and is working in isolation to avoid infecting others. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the 74-year-old president had developed mild symptoms. They did not give further details about his condition.
“We have a president that is not only on the job but will remain on the job and I’m optimistic that he will have a very quick and speedy recovery,” Meadows told reporters
Wall Street stocks are down nearly 1% on news of one of the biggest health problems facing a US president in decades.
Trump is an energetic president with a giant personality. Without his character, the campaign lacks energy, "said Republican fundraiser Dan Eberhart.
Joe Biden campaign said Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, tested negative on Friday.
A spokesman for Pence said Vice President Mike Pence and his wife had tested negative. The White House official said Pence would operate from his residence several miles from the White House, and that his staff would remain separate from Trump's staff.
Vice President Mike Pence, 61, a former conservative US lawmaker and governor of Indiana, would take office if President Trump was incapacitated.
Joe Biden wished a speedy recovery President Trump and the first lady. "We will continue praying for the health and safety of the president and his family," he said on Twitter.
President Trump's positive test also means that others at the highest levels of the US government have been at risk and may have to be quarantine as well. Officials said Mnuchin, Attorney General William Barr, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were among those who tested negative.
Officials said contract tracking is underway at the White House, and that the campaign is directing individuals who have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the disease to quarantine.
World leaders and U.S. politicians on both sides of the corridor have expressed their sympathy. Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders said they hope Trump's diagnosis will lead him to be more cautious in the future.
CTM News
2 Oct 2020
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