Politico | When did coronavirus breach US president’s bubble? Inside a big Trump mystery
- Trump interacted with dozens of aides and hundreds of supporters throughout a series of widely attended events over the past week
- Now his team is trying to figure out how widely the virus may have spread in his orbit
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Daniel Lippman, Nancy Cook and Meredith McGraw on politico.com on October 2, 2020.
The first sign of trouble sent a wave of worry through US President Donald Trump’s team travelling on Air Force One: a beloved top White House aide, Hope Hicks, had fallen ill during a campaign trip to Minnesota.
After a fundraiser early Wednesday evening, Hicks stayed aboard the presidential aircraft as other Trump aides watched the airport rally that evening from the sidelines. She later isolated herself on the plane for the return trip to Washington.
By Thursday morning, Hicks had tested positive for Covid-19 – triggering a frenzy throughout the White House to handle a bombshell that would upend the final month of the 2020 campaign and reshape the president’s posture toward a virus that had already killed more than 208,000 Americans on his watch.
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US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump test positive for Covid-19
As the White House and campaign scrambled to chart a new plan for October with a hospitalised president, Trump’s aides and medical team were launching their highest-profile contact tracing exercise yet: dissecting the movements and interactions of the president, dozens of aides and perhaps hundreds of supporters throughout a series of widely attended events, from a Supreme Court nominee unveiling last Saturday to the first presidential debate in Ohio on Tuesday to a fundraiser in New Jersey on Thursday, hours after the president already knew about the threat lurking within his team.
By Friday afternoon, it remained far from clear whether Hicks or Trump himself or someone else entirely was the source of bringing the virus into the White House bubble.