The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported Friday night. Don Jr., who is one of dozens of people in President Trump’s inner circle who have caught COVID-19, apparently tested positive earlier this week, and a spokesperson told Bloomberg that he is asymptomatic and now self-isolating. His girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, tested positive for the virus over the summer.
It’s not clear how or where Trump Jr. was infected or if his case is linked to the earlier White House outbreaks. Also on Friday, White House aide Andrew Giuliani, who is Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s son, revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 as well. The younger Giuliani had attended the bizarre conspiracy theory-saturated press conference in a packed room at the Republican National Committee headquarters where his father and other members of Trump’s legal team held to make a case for overturning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis, who took part in the press conference, said Friday that both she and Rudy Giuliani had tested negative.
Bloomberg News also reports that Hannah McInnis, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, also tested positive earlier this month, which may be another case linked to the earlier outbreak that struck Pence’s team the week before the election, infecting several staffers including his top aides. That was one of at least three serious outbreaks linked to the White House in the last two months. Two weeks ago, numerous people who attended an indoor Election Night party at the White House later tested positive for COVID-19, including President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, White House political director Brian Jack, Trump campaign adviser David Bossie, and many others, including a large number of Secret Service agents.
Two Republican senators, Florida’s Rick Scott and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, also reported positive tests this week.
More than 193,000 new cases of the coronavirus were reported in the U.S. on Friday, a new national record, as COVID-19 continues to rapidly spread across the country. The nation also broke prior records for tests and hospitalizations. The alarming surge of infections prompted the CDC on Thursday to urge Americans to cancel their travel plans for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
