(L-R) Assistant to the President and Director of Oval Office Operations Nicholas Luna, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller, and counselor to President Hope Hicks walk to Marine One to depart from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on September 30, 2020. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) (JTA) — President Donald Trump announced early Friday morning that both he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 and would begin quarantining.
Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Ivanka Trump, his daughter, who are Jewish, both tested negative although they have been traveling with Trump, media reported, quoting White House sources. The Kushners also have taken leading roles in Trump’s reelection campaign. The sources also said that Trump was suffering “mild” symptoms.
Trump’s announcement — coming just weeks ahead of the presidential election — came hours after news broke that Trump advisor Hope Hicks had tested positive. She began to show symptoms Wednesday while traveling with Trump to a rally in Minnesota.
People with COVID-19 can transmit the disease before showing symptoms and may actually be most contagious during that time, according to researchers. That would put anyone who was in contact with Hicks or Trump earlier this week at risk.
Kushner also traveled to the Minnesota rally; he and Hicks also flew that day on Marine One with Stephen Miller, another Jewish senior advisor. Photographs show none of them wearing a mask. There was no word on whether Miller had tested positive. Miller’s wife earlier this year had the virus.
On Tuesday, Ivanka Trump was among the Trump family members in the audience at the presidential debate in Cleveland. According to media reports, she wore a mask when entering and existing the auditorium but not during the debate.
Trump’s announcement raises questions about whether Vice President Joe Biden, who is running against him and ahead in the polls, could have been put at risk during Tuesday’s debate, although the men stood more than six feet apart throughout the debate. Later Friday morning, Biden’s campaign announced that he would test for the virus.
It also comes after Trump faced criticism for his behavior during the debate, which included not condemning white supremacists when invited to do so, and amid ongoing criticism about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which so far has killed more than 200,000 Americans.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.