Trump and First Lady in quarantine as they await coronavirus test results after top aide is infected

Hope Hicks travelled on Air Force One with president before testing positive

(REUTERS)

Donald Trump has said that he is waiting for the result of a coronavirus test after confirming that Hope Hicks, one of his closest aides, tested positive.

The president said in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News that his counselor, who is in her second stint at the White House, was confirmed as being infected on Thursday. “She did test positive. I just heard about that.”

She travelled with him to his rally in Minnesota on Tuesday. She is said to have symptoms and is at home in Washington DC.

Mr Trump told Hannity: "Whether we quarantine or whether we have it, I don't know … We'll see what happens. Who knows."

He has a rally in Florida scheduled for Friday and an event in Wisconsin on Saturday.

Later he tweeted: “Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”

Reports that she had tested positive for coronavirus first came from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, who tweeted: “Hope Hicks, who traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday, and to his Minnesota rally yesterday, has coronavirus, sources tell me.”

Ms Hicks has been seen both with and without a mask while travelling with Trump’s team to rallies in recent weeks.

Jacobs added: “No indication Trump has contracted coronavirus, but inner circle aide Hope Hicks has it, and is experiencing symptoms of the disease. She was in close proximity to him, maskless, in recent days. She was quarantined on AF1 on trip back from Minnesota.”

Asked by The Independent for a comment, the White House said: "The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously.

“White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting Covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is travelling.”

Ms Hicks is the closest aide to Mr Trump to have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, which has infected some 7.3 million Americans and killed 207,000.

At the first presidential debate against Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday, Mr Trump insisted that there had been no negative consequences from his decision to hold repeated election rallies with little social distancing and with many audience members not wearing masks.

His friend Herman Cain, a business magnate and former Republican presidential hopeful, tested positive for coronavirus and later died from it after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June, where he was among multiple attendees not wearing a mask. However, it is not known whether Mr Cain contracted the illness there.

Staff around Mr Trump are tested for coronavirus daily.

The president himself has repeatedly mocked the idea of wearing masks, although he has been seen with one occasionally. His CDC director, Robert Redfield, testified on Capitol Hill last month that wearing a mask could be an even more effective way to slow the spread of Covid-19 than a vaccine, once one has been developed. Mr Trump responded by saying that Mr Redfield must have misunderstood the question he was being asked.

Ms Hicks worked for the Trump Organisation before becoming a press secretary for his 2016 campaign.

Following his victory she became director of strategic communications at the White House and later communications director, before her resignation in March 2018., something sources at the time said she had been planning for several months.

She was recalled to the White House in March this year as counselor to the president.