President and First Lady test positive for COVID-19 virus

Historic City News reporters watched as 74-year-old President Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that he and the first lady, 50-year-old Melania Trump, have tested positive for COVID-19.

The president and first lady were tested after Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest senior advisers, tested positive for the coronavirus. Hicks is now the highest-profile member of the administration to contract the virus.  Hicks is in frequent contact with Trump and other top officials.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” President Trump tweeted.

The president has held campaign rallies around the country for months, many of which are outdoors but some have been indoors. Hicks along with several other top White House and campaign advisers traveled with the president to Cleveland for Tuesday’s debate against Democratic Nominee Joe Biden.  The most recent trip was Wednesday night in Minnesota.  The president also traveled to New Jersey on Thursday for a fundraiser.

“What I said is we have to be calm. We can’t be panicked,” Trump told reporters in September after being pressed on his coronavirus response.

The president has insisted he “didn’t lie” to the American public about the severity of coronavirus, despite having told veteran journalist Bob Woodward in March that he had been “intentionally downplaying” the virus’s potential impact.

After a Trump rally in Tulsa in June, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain tested positive for the virus and later died. At that same rally, roughly eight White House staffers, including Secret Service personnel, tested positive for the virus. One of President Trump’s personal valets, who works in the West Wing serving the president his meals, among other duties, tested positive for the coronavirus in May.

U.S. health officials continue to monitor for coronavirus cases in the United States. As of Oct. 1, more than 7 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S.  There have been more than 205,000 deaths.