As President Donald Trump reportedly deals with lethargy and coldlike symptoms after he and his wife Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus, their 14-year-old son Barron is in the clear.
“Barron has tested negative and all precautions are being taken to ensure he’s kept safe and healthy,” Melania Trump’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham told USA Today.
Officials aren’t sure how the president and the first lady contracted the virus, but it might have been through his close aide, Hope Hicks, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. She has traveled with the president multiple times recently, including to the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday.
Eric Trump and Senior Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump arrive for the first presidential debate between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
Trump has been criticized for his cavalier attitude toward the pandemic and for flouting safety guidelines from his own public health officials. He, his family and political supporters have rejected wearing masks at rallies and other public events, including Tuesday night’s debate.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter and White House senior adviser, was seen at the debate, not wearing a mask, but she and her husband, Jared Kusher, also a senior adviser who has traveled with the president recently, have tested negative, a spokesperson for the couple told People.
“Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were tested again for COVID-19 and both are negative,” Carolina Hurley, Ivanka’s spokeswoman, told People.
News early Friday that the 74-year-old Trump and his 51-year-old wife had tested positive rocked the world, shaking global markets, drawing sympathy from world leaders and raising concerns about how the president’s health could be affected because he is in a high-risk category for developing adverse symptoms, the New York Times and other outlets reported.
White House physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, said in a statement that Trump was “well” but did not say whether he was experiencing symptoms.
The New York Times reported that Trump was experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms Thursday. At a fundraiser he attended at his golf club at Bedminster, N.J., he seemed lethargic when he came into contact with about 100 people, one person at the event told the Times. The president’s treatment plan is still being discussed, the New York Times said.
In a tweet early Friday morning, Trump said that he and his wife had begun their quarantine and “recovery process immediately.” The New York Times said the couple would quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, which could force him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail just 32 days before the Nov. 3 election.
Barron, meanwhile, is set to begin “a phased transition to hybrid learning” at his private school in Maryland later this month, USA Today reported.
