Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lauren Aratani (now), Amanda Holpuch, Tom Lutz and Oliver Holmes (earlier)

US president makes brief visit to fans outside Walter Reed – as it happened

We’ll be closing this blog shortly but will continue to have live updates over on our global coronavirus live blog here.

Here’s a quick summary of everything that has happened in US politics today:

  • The White House’s medical team said that Donald Trump, who is currently being treated for Covid-19 at a military hospital, “has continued to improve” since Saturday. The team confirmed the president had lowered oxygen levels at one point and refused to answer questions about whether the president has suffered lung damage. Continuing to take an “upbeat” perspective, one member of the team suggested that Trump could be released as early as tomorrow.
  • Trump made an impromptu appearance outside of the hospital this afternoon, waving from inside an SUV to a crowd of supporters who gathered outside the hospital. Concerns were raised about the other people who were in the car with Trump, who was wearing a mask, given that Trump is contagious with the virus.
  • A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed the widest lead in a month that Joe Biden has over Trump. The poll, taken Friday and Saturday, showed Biden with a 10-point lead over Trump. A separate poll indicated a majority – 65% – of Americans believe that Trump would not have been infected with the virus if he took it more seriously.
  • A report from the Wall Street Journal said that Trump had a positive Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday but did not disclose it immediately to the public and carried on business-as-usual. Trump told Fox News that night that he was waiting for test results and then tweeted later that night that he has the virus.

Officials in New Jersey are racing to contact trace 206 guests who attended Donald Trump’s rally at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

After the president announced he tested positive for Covid-19 in the late night after the event, officials have been trying to inform everyone in attendance of their possible exposure to the virus. One obstacle health officials are facing is that the campaign only gave them the email addresses of attendees, which is less likely to get a response compared to addresses and telephone numbers, according to a report from Politico.

The New Jersey Department of Health tweeted on Thursday that officials have already tried to reach out to guests and told them to monitor their symptoms and quarantine if they were in close contact with the president or his staff. The department said that the federal government is also conducting contact tracing of the event.

Judd Deere, deputy press secretary, just told a White House pool reporter that Donald Trump’s appearance in front of Walter Reed Hospital was “cleared by the medical team as safe to do” and said that “appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the President and all those supporting it, including PPE”.

Concerns over the appearance and whether Trump put the other people that were in the car with him, who are likely Secret Service personnel, at risk of contracting the virus have been raised on Twitter. The White House has since emphasized that the ride was short and impromptu.

Trump has reportedly told his advisers that he is bored at the hospital and is tired of watching reports of his hospitalization on television, according to the Washington Post.

Donald Trump waves at his supporters outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Donald Trump waves at his supporters outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Photograph: Anthony Peltier/AP

Sean Conley, White House physician, reportedly told co-workers in the spring, before the president contracted Covid-19, that he was feeling intense personal stress in his current job, according to a new report from the Washington Post.

Conley, a 40-year-old Navy commander, joined the White House medical staff in December 2016 after serving as a Navy emergency physician and serving in a trauma unit in Afghanistan. He was tapped as White House physician in 2018.

The Post reports that those who have worked with Conley believe that the public statements he has given appear to be dictated by politics. “Every statement he is giving appears to be political, dictated by the White House or the president,” one anonymous source who has worked with Conley told the Post. “These are not statement a medical doctor gives.”

After painting an upbeat picture of the president’s health on Saturday, Conley today admitted that the president’s oxygen levels had dropped at one point. He said that he was “trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, over his course of illness, has had.”

Updated

Joe Biden tests negative for Covid-19

Joe Biden’s campaign just announced the former vice president tested negative for Covid-19 today.

This is Biden’s second test since it became public that Donald Trump has contracted Covid-19. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, both tested negative for Covid-19 on Friday.

Biden’s campaign said last night that they will be releasing the result of every Covid-19 test the candidate takes moving forward.

The Washington Post just published a report on the band of supporters that have gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where the president is staying as he continues his treatment for Covid-19.

Dan Zak, a reporter for the Post, describes a scene where Trump’s supporters are yelling to passing cars in bullhorns calling for “eight more years” and waving huge Trump 2020 flags.

“Trump is sick, so the rally has to come to him, with all the hallmarks: relentless noise, cultish fervor glazed with folksy politeness, and general masklessness despite the virus that sent a U.S. president to the hospital for the most concerning medical episode since a .22-caliber slug lodged in Ronald Reagan’s chest 39 years ago,” Zak writes.

It appears that most of the supporters came from the surrounding areas in Maryland and nearby Pennsylvania, which Trump won in 2016, but the Post reports that one supporter from Tampa, Florida, an evangelist, broke news to the crowd that Trump may be out of the hospital tomorrow. “Thank you, Jesus, for healing the president!’ he said.

Supporters of Donald Trump outside the hospital where the president is being treated for Covid-19.
Supporters of Donald Trump outside the hospital where the president is being treated for Covid-19. Photograph: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

The White House Correspondents Association released a statement condemning the White House for not informing the press pool that Donald Trump would be making an appearance outside of Walter Reed Hospital this afternoon. The White House told reporters that there would be no more events after 3 pm today.

“It is outrageous for the president to have left the hospital – even briefly – amid a health crisis without a protective pool present to ensure that the American people know where their president is and how he is doing,” said the association’s president Zeke Miller in a statement.

White House refuses to release number of officials with Covid-19

Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, took two questions from reporters moments ago and refused to commit releasing to the public how many White House officials have tested positive for Covid-19.

It also appears the White House is trying to deny a Wall Street Journal report from this afternoon that Donald Trump carried on business-as-usual even after he had a positive rapid Covid-19 test on Thursday. The press secretary did not answer questions about tests the president took before the White House announced Trump has Covid-19. McEnany said that the president first tested positive after he held a rally at hid golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Updated

An MSNBC reporter is saying that attorney general William Barr is self-quarantining at home, though Barr has taken four negative tests since Friday morning.

Commenting on Donald Trump’s appearance outside of Walter Reed Hospital, where he waved to supporters from inside an SUV, the White House released a statement that said the president “took a short, last-minute motorcade ride to wave to his supporters outside and has now returned to the Presidential Suite inside Walter Reed.”

Reporters on Twitter are pointing out that it appears that the other people in the car, likely Secret Service detail, were wearing PPE including medical-grade masks and eye protection.

White House pool reporters also mentioned on Twitter that they were told that no other events were happening after 3 pm today and were not informed about Trump’s appearance.

Updated

Reaction to Donald Trump making a surprise, very brief appearance outside of Walter Reed Hospital just moments ago, when he waved to supporters while in an SUV, is starting to appear on Twitter.

While Trump said that contracting the virus has allowed him to understand the virus, he chose to get into a car with other people even though he is contagious, something that multiple health experts have pointed out puts others at risk.

Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said the president put his Secret Service detail “at grave risk”.

“In the hospital when we go into close contact with a COVID patient we dress in full PPE: Gown, gloves, N95, eye protection, hat. This is the height of irresponsibility,” Reiner wrote.

One reporter said an anonymous Secret Service source said Trump’s appearance was “so reckless, so careless, so heartless”.

Trump makes appearance outside of hospital

It’s been a rather bizarre 15 minutes: Donald Trump tweeted a video moments ago that said he was “about to make a little surprise visit” to supporters who have gathered outside of Walter Reed Hospital, where the president has been under medical care since Friday.

In the video, Trump said (seven months into the pandemic) that he’s “learned a lot about Covid” and saying that contracting the virus has been the “real school”, saying “this isn’t the ‘let’s-read-the-books’ school”.

Trump indeed made an appearance, but it was a quick drive-by where, inside a car, he waved to cheering supporters. One video on Twitter showed Trump, wearing a mask, waving a giving a thumbs up to the crowd. Reports say the appearance lasted about a minute.

A car with Donald Trump drives past supporters outside Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland, on 4 October.
A car with Donald Trump drives past supporters outside Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland, on 4 October. Photograph: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The White House did not disclose that Donald Trump received a positive test result from a Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday, opting to carry on business-as-usual until the more thorough Covid-19 screening confirmed the president has Covid-19.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon from anonymous sources familiar with the matter that the president attempted to keep the positive test result from the rapid test mum, saying on Fox News Thursday night that he was awaiting test results when the president already knew about his positive rapid test result. Trump tweeted at 1 am that morning that he tested positive for Covid-19.

The Journal is reporting that close members of the president’s team have been kept out of the loop about the potential spread of the virus in the White House. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stephien did not know that Hope Hicks, a close aide to the president, had tested positive until news reports came out about her case Thursday night.

“I’m glued to Twitter and TV because I have no official communication from anyone in the West Wing,” an administration official to the Journal.

Donald Trump just tweeted his appreciation to “all the fans and supporters outside the hospital”.

“The fact is, they really love our Country and are seeing how we are MAKING IT GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!” the president wrote on Twitter.

Supporters of the president gathered outside Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where Trump is being held, wearing MAGA hats and holding signs affirming their support of Trump since yesterday afternoon.

Some reports say that a handful of supporters weren’t wearing masks or practicing social distancing.

Reporters on Twitter have suggested that some people showing up outside the hospital are a part of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theorist group that believes Trump is waging a secret battle against the “deep state”.

GOP senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania announced his retirement today, setting the stage for what will be a contentious fight for his open Senate seat in 2022.

Toomey’s reelection in 2016 was settled after what turned out to be the most expensive Senate race in history after groups from outside the state funnelled money into Toomey’s campaign and that of his Democratic candidate, Katie McGinty. The race saw $113 million and showed just how valuable a single seat in the Senate can be for either party. Toomey won by getting just over 1% more votes than McGinty.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported that Toomey will be announcing a decision to retire tomorrow. The senator isn’t expected to run for governor in 2022, though he was considered the front-runner GOP candidate for the gubernatorial office.

A reporter for Vice News said on Twitter that, among potential replacements Pennsylvania Republicans have floated the idea of Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, of running for the seat. Trump has never held elected office before.

Though Joe Biden’s campaign promised last night to release the results of every Covid test the former vice president takes, his campaign has yet to release a test result since Friday, when Biden tested negative.

The campaign has gone ahead and released Biden’s schedule for tomorrow, which includes two in-person events.

Biden will be in Miami for an in-person event at a Haitian cultural center and will speak in Miami’s Little Havana. Jill Biden will be attending a Women for Biden rally in Boca Raton.

Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, and a handful of faith leaders close to the White House will be holding a “call to prayer” for the president and the first lady at 5pm tonight.

The faith leaders will include Paula White-Cain, Trump’s evangelical spiritual advisor who also runs a megachurch in Florida. The prayer will be held virtually.

Updated

This is Lauren Aratani taking over for Amanda Holpuch. White House director of strategic communication Alyssa Farah implied that Sean Conley, the White House doctor who is overseeing Donald Trump, was trying to “project confidence” when saying yesterday that “the president is doing very well” despite contradictory reports that came out moments later.

Farah, speaking to reporters, said that Conley was giving “a snapshot in time” and that, on Saturday, Donald Trump was doing “extremely well”.

She dove into an explanation into Conley’s mindset when treating the president: “When you’re treating a patient, you want to project confidence, you want to lift their spirits and that was the intent.”

PBS Newshour White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, reports that Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, have tested negative for coronavirus today.

Despite Trump and others in his inner circle testing positive for the virus, Pence is scheduled to continue making public appearances on behalf of the White House and on behalf of the Trump 2020 presidential campaign. The first vice-presidential debate is Wednesday.

There are some who are concerned Pence should be taking extra precautions because he is first in the line of succession should Trump become unable to perform his presidential duties.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday that he did not have concerns about Pence’s travel.

“The vice president takes it very serious all of these measures,” Miller said. “Anyone around the vice president are tested. People are kept very safe.”

Updated

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has just announced his intentions to reverse the reopening of nine neighborhoods after they had a Covid-19 testing positivity rate above 3% for the past seven days.

The mayor said he wants to close nonessential business and schools in the South Brooklyn and Central Queens neighborhoods. The state government must approve such a move and de Blasio said city officials would meet with the officials in the hopes of having the closures begin on Wednesday.

De Blasio said the plan was “to rewind in these nine ZIP codes, to rewind, to go back, to address the problems by using the tools we know work.”

The areas affected include portions of Far Rockaway, Borough Park, Midwood, Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay and Kew Gardens. Many of them have large populations of Orthodox Jews and health officials have targeted outreach to try and manage outbreaks in those communities.

New York City was a center of the global outbreak in the spring, but had seen some relief in recent months. The state’s infection rate had been below 1% for 37 days straight as of 13 September but health officials were on alert last week as cases increased in some areas.

Updated

Experts react to latest briefing by Trump’s doctors

Dr Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician at the Medical University of South Carolina, is among those with questions following the latest briefing of the president’s doctors.

She is one of those trying to understand how the president might be discharged tomorrow after he has been experiencing oxygen level drops and is on steroids.

Kuppalli also makes the point steroids can cause delirium or confusion in patients and says she is “curious as to why @VP is not currently in charge”.

An odd quote from Sean Conley during his update on Donald Trump’s health. “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction,” Conley said when explaining his reluctance to say Trump had been on oxygen earlier this week. I assume Conley means coverage of Trump’s illness, rather than the illness itself.

Dr Brian Garibaldi’s statement that Trump may be OK to return home to the White House may come back to haunt the administration. If Trump isn’t released tomorrow, it will appear his condition has worsened. There is speculation it is Trump himself who is pushing for an early release.

Some of the things the medical team didn’t say are interesting, particularly because Donald Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, admitted that he was not completely forthcoming yesterday on the use of oxygen to treat the president. And then admitted that he and the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gave conflicting messages on the president’s health. It doesn’t give the public much faith that we can take everything the president’s medical staff says as a gold standard on Trump’s health.

It’s worth remembering that Covid-19 can, and does, have serious implications for people’s health even if it does not kill them. And that includes people who were perfectly healthy before being diagnosed. IT should, of course, be noted that the president’s medical team are no doubt giving Trump the best medical care available and it is quite likely he could be on the road to a full recovery. The problem at the moment is the message still appears garbled.

Updated

Perhaps significantly, Conley does not answer questions about results of lung scans on the president or whether he has had pneumonia.

CNN’s medical expert, Dr Sanjay Gupta, says some of the steroids given to the president are used to treat lung conditions. Of course, doctors may just be throwing everything they can at Trump because he is the president but questions are being raised on Twitter by people with more medical knowledge than myself.

Conley is asked by reporters about the contrasting reports of Trump’s health yesterday. Conley had been upbeat about the president’s health, while White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said there was a high-level of concern. Conley says Meadows’s remarks were “misconstrued” and the chief of staff was referring to Trump’s report before he was admitted to hospital.

Another doctor, Sean Dooley, gives further details. He says the president “remains without fever since Friday morning” and is “not complaining of shortness of breath”. Dooley says the president is “walking around” and his “cardiac, liver and pulmonary condition” is not a cause for concern.

Another member of the team, Dr Brian Garabaldi, says the president may be released tomorrow.

“He has been up and around. Our plan today is to have him eat and drink, be up out of bed,” Garibaldi said. “If he continues to look and feel as well as he does today our hope is to plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.”

Updated

Trump doctor: president 'has continued to improve'

Donald Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, says the president has “continued to improve” since the last medical update on Saturday.

Conley then addresses the fact that he would not be drawn yesterday on whether the president had needed oxygen. He says on Friday morning, the president experienced a drop in oxygen levels and needed to be given supplemental oxygen at the White House for about an hour.

“Over the course of his illness, the President has experienced two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation. We debated the reasons for this, and whether we’d even intervene. It was a determination of the team based on the timeline from the initial diagnosis that we initiate [steroid] dexamethasone,” Conley said.

Conley is asked if Trump has been given oxygen since. Conley says he will have to check with nurses. Surely as Trump’s doctor he would know such things? That sounds like an evasion to me.

Updated

As we wait for an update from Donald Trump’s medical team on his health, the White House national security adviser said the president will stay in hospital for now.

“I spoke with the chief of staff this morning, and the good news is that the president feels very well and he actually wants to get back home to the White House and get back to work, but I think he’s going to stay at Walter Reed [hospital[ for at least another period of time,” Robert O’Brien told CBS’s Face the Nation.

O’Brien tested positive for Covid-19 himself in July. He said the next week would be important for Trump’s health. “I think the doctors want to make sure that they’re there for the president and he’s getting the best treatment, but he’s doing well,” he said.

O’Brien said that transferring power to Mike Pence is “not on the table” at the moment. “[Trump is] doing very well and just like it could happen to anybody, but we’re prepared, we have a great vice president, we have a government that is steady,” said O’Brien.

On Thursday afternoon Donald Trump held a roundtable of 19 top Republican donors at Bedminster, his 36-hole golf course in New Jersey, where he vented his frustrations about how his push for a rapid vaccine against Covid-19 was being undermined by the deep state.

According to a description of the meeting recorded on video by one of the donors present, “the president said that the approval for vaccines has been slowed down for political reasons by people who wanted to hurt him”.

The president’s attack on scientists within his own administration seems to have impressed the donors around the table. But what they didn’t know at that time, because Trump did not tell them, was that just a few hours earlier one of Trump’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, had herself tested positive for the disease.

As Trump embarks on a personal battle against coronavirus, having received his own positive result in the early hours of Friday and now having gone to hospital, expressions of concern have flooded in from around the world. Political animosities that have been raging across the country have temporarily been suspended as adversaries wish the president and the also infected first lady a speedy recovery.

But the outpouring of goodwill has not prevented questions being asked about how, when and why the president contracted this potentially life-threatening illness that has already claimed the lives of at least 208,000 Americans. At the center of these inquiries is the Bedminster fundraising event, which the White House allowed to go ahead even after it became known that Hicks had fallen ill.

You can read the full article below:

Updated

Donald Trump’s medical team, headed by his doctor Sean Conley, are expected to give a briefing on the president’s health in the next hour.

Joe Biden adviser Symone Sanders appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and said she was not concerned the former vice-president had been exposed to Covid-19 during last week’s presidential debate.

Sanders said that Biden had been at least six feet away from Trump, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, at all times.

“On the debate stage President Trump mocked Vice president Biden for his wearing of a mask. Many folks have mocked our events, our six-feet circles, our little white circles on the ground, those are there to keep folks safe,” Sanders said.

She also said the Biden campaign wished Trump well in his recovery from Covid-19.

“We extend our thoughts and prayers to President Trump and the first lady. We are sincerely hoping that the President makes a very quick recovery and we can see him on the campaign trial soon,” she said. “No, we haven’t heard to my knowledge from the Trump campaign or the White House, but the reality is that Vice President Biden was not exposed.”

One man was not surprised by revelations that Donald Trump does not deserve his reputation as a preternaturally successful businessman and deal maker. The man who helped create the illusion.

Tony Schwartz spent hundreds of hours with Trump to ghostwrite his bestselling 1987 book The Art of the Deal, effectively creating the origin story of the brash property tycoon. It was Schwartz who coined the phrase “truthful hyperbole”, which neatly foreshadowed Trump and his supporters’ attempts to rationalize many of his false and misleading claims.

The 68-year-old writer has long disowned the president as a malignant narcissist and expressed regret for his part in constructing the mythology. So the New York Times report, detailing chronic financial losses and vast outstanding loans, confirmed his view that Trump was always better at cutting fantasy deals than making real ones.

“It’s the ultimate unmasking of the emperor with no clothes,” Schwartz said by phone from Riverdale in the Bronx, New York. “There’s nothing more important to Trump than being seen as very, very rich, which is why he’s expended so much effort in trying to claim a net worth far beyond what he actually was worth.

“The fact the evidence is unequivocal that he was not the person he claimed to be means that he’s lost the central premise on which he’s based his own self-worth, because Trump confuses personal worth with net worth. There’s nothing Trump hates more than to feel weak and vulnerable and like a failure, so he won’t allow himself to acknowledge those feelings, but they’ll be there and they will affect him.

“Unfortunately, should he be re-elected, one of the ways he’ll respond to that is he’ll take it out on everyone who he thinks diminished or belittled him along the way.”

You can read the full article below:

Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar believes hearings into the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court should be postponed.

Three Republican senators – Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Thom Tillis – have said they have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days.

“We’ve got the fact that three senators have it, two are on the Judiciary Committee … we don’t know how many other Republican senators had it,” Klobuchar told Fox News Sunday. “I don’t know why you would ram through this Supreme Court hearing, put people in danger.”

Barrett will tip the balance of the supreme court firmly in favor of conservatives if the Senate confirms her nomination. Fox host Chris Wallace pointed out that hearings could be made remotely if there are concerns over Covid-19. “This is for the highest court of the land and yes, we have had virtual hearings… but you need to be able to go back and forth with the nominee,” Klobuchar said.

You can read more about how Covid-19 may affect Barrett’s nomination below:

Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Jason Miller, has appeared on ABC’s This Week and disagreed with the 72% of Americans in a recent poll who said Donald Trump did not take Covid-19 seriously enough before contracting the virus.

“I think there’s a really important point here is President Trump had to take this head-on,” he said, pointing to the travel bans on China and Europe early in the pandemic. “He had to get out there as the leader not just of the country but of the free world and take this head on.”

Host George Stephanopoulos asked Miller about what he described as a “cavalier” approach to masks at Trump’s public events.

“I’ll push back on that and say it hasn’t been cavalier at all,” Miller said. “We take it very seriously. That’s why we give everyone coming to rallies or to events – we give them masks. We check their temperature.”

Miller struggled to explain why the president met donors at a fundraiser at his golf club in New Jersey on Thursday after his close aide, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for Covid-19.

“I can’t speak to – since I’m not part of White House operations, I’m not part of the White House medical unit – is the exact, how much time he was spending with Hope and the proximity for these things. I can’t speak to that. I’m going to let the White House do that,” he said.

The White House pool reporters are being driven to Walter Reed Medical Center, where Donald Trump is being treated for Covid-19, so we may have an update on the president’s condition. Although, given the chaos and contradictions of yesterday’s update, we may not.

Ohio governor Mike DeWine also told CNN’s State of the Union that he would have preferred Donald Trump to have worn a mask at all times during the presidential debate last week.

Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump did not wear masks while in the audience for last week’s presidential debate
Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump did not wear masks while in the audience for last week’s presidential debate. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AP

The debate took place in Cleveland, Ohio, and the president’s family did not wear masks when they were in the audience, while Trump mocked Biden for his use of masks.

“Do I wish – look do I wish the President had worn a mask all the time? Of course. You know, of course,” said the Republican governor.

Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday but it is possible members of the Trump campaign were infectious when they were in Ohio. DeWine said he had not been contacted about that possibility.

“Well, they have not reached out to me. I know that I talked to the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic the other day who gave me an update, who gave me a report so I don’t know whether they have reached out to Cleveland Clinic or not. They have not talked to me about it, no,” he said.

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, has called Donald Trump’s positive test for Covid-19 “a cautionary tale”.

“This should be kind of an alert to everybody, that anybody can get the virus – even the president of the United States,” DeWine said on CNN’s State of the Union.

“So people who maybe haven’t worn masks in the past, I’m hoping they’ll look at this and say, ‘the president can get it, I can get it.’ It can happen to anybody, I hope that’s what happens and that’s what comes out of it.”

Updated

Fox News’s Chris Wallace was criticized by those who thought he lost control of last week’s presidential debate, where he acted as moderator.

The subject came up again on Sunday when Wallace interviewed Steve Cortes, an adviser to the Trump campaign.

The two had sparred over the Trump family’s refusal to wear masks in the audience during last week’s presidential debate, before Cortes attacked Wallace’s performance.

“The way you’re starting to harangue me now actually reminds me of what you did to the president… he had to debate not just Joe Biden but you as well, you were not a neutral moderator then,” said Cortes. “People can make reasonable decisions for themselves [about masks].”

“No, actually they can’t, they’re the rules and they’ll be kicked out next time,” Wallace said. “The president interrupted me and the vice president 145 times, so I object to saying I harangued the president, I know it’s a talking point.”

The heated exchange on Fox News Sunday came after Wallace highlighted the Trump family’s decision not to wear masks.

“Everybody was tested beforehand, everybody was told to wear a mask, why did the first family and the chief of staff feel the rules for everybody didn’t apply to them?” asked Wallace.

“We also believe in some element of individual choice … people were distanced and they had been tested,” Cortes answered.

Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Jason Miller, has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the president’s condition following his positive test for Covid-19.

Host Chuck Todd asked Miller if he had spoken to the president since his diagnosis.

“I spoke with the President yesterday afternoon and he’s in very good spirits,” said Miller. “... The president said a couple of things. Number one, that he’s going to defeat this virus, that as a nation, we’re going to defeat this virus, and our campaign is going to defeat this virus, and once he gets out of the hospital, he’s ready to get back to the campaign trail.

“He sounded pretty energetic, but he said something else that I thought that was important too, Chuck, and that was to be careful, and that was to remind folks to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer, make sure that if you can’t socially distance, distance to wear a mask.”

The last sentence is interesting advice from the president as he said this about Joe Biden during last week’s presidential debate: ““When needed, I wear masks. I don’t wear a mask like him [Joe Biden]. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.””

More news from the polls. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday and taken after last week’s presidential debate but before Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis shows Joe Biden widening his lead over the president. According to the poll, 53% of registered voters preferred Biden compared to 39% for Trump. Biden’s lead of 14 percentage points is up from the eight percentage points the last time the poll was taken, which was before the presidential debate.

Trump was criticised in many quarters for his belligerence during last week’s debate, although many felt neither candidate came out of the episode well. Forty-nine percent of respondents to the poll said Biden had performed better in the debate, compared to 24% for Trump. Of those surveyed, 73% said the debate would play no role in how they intend to vote in November’s election.

“Basically, last night was a snapshot of the last three and a half years. Not being able to say anything about white supremacists, being negative and being unpresidential,” said one respondent.

Another respondent, who preferred Trump said: “I would say Donald Trump’s admittance of not supporting white supremacists, telling the white supremacists to stand down, so to speak, by the moderator. The other important thing was Joe Biden’s inability to form any coherent response.”

Updated

Poll: most Americans think Trump to blame for his Covid-19 diagnosis

More findings from the Reuters/Ipsos poll mentioned below. The poll was taken after Donald Trump’s positive test for Covid-19, and it found most of those surveyed said the president should take some blame for his diagnosis.

Sixty-five percent of those polled agreed with the statement: “if President Trump had taken coronavirus more seriously, he probably would not have been infected.” Predictably, 90% of Democrats agreed with the statement, but so did 50% of Republicans.

The poll also revealed a lack of faith in Trump’s statements on Covid-19. Fifty-five percent of those polled said the president has not been telling the public the truth about the coronavirus, with 34% saying they believe the president’s statements. Eleven percent were unsure.

The poll was taken on 2 and 3 October.

While much of the world’s attention is on Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis, it’s worth remembering the virus still has a grip on large parts of America away from Washington DC.

Twenty-one states reported a rise in cases this week compared to last week. They include states such as New York and New Jersey that were hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic and have appeared to get the virus under control. Only three states – Texas, Missouri and South Carolina – reported a fall in cases. The states to report a rise are: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Around 42,000 new Covid-19 cases a day were reported in the US over the last seven days, which is down from the peak of new cases in July when around 67,000 new cases were being reported a day. However, the number of new cases are up from September. Health experts are worried about a rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths as colder weather means people spend more time indoors where the virus spreads more easily.

The US is now waking up. And with that, I will hand you over to my colleague, Tom Lutz.

Have a good weekend. Thanks for following.

Among Trump’s dizzyingly-long list of contractions is how a self-described germaphobe with an obsession with personal hygiene has become a global symbol for dismissing the genuine dangers of a highly-infectious disease during a pandemic.

Trump entered the 2020 pandemic already practising many of the measures that epidemiologists have been calling for – avoiding ill people, frequent handwashing and use of alcohol gels, and eschewing handshakes.

As far back at 1993, Trump told radio host Howard Stern that he suffers “germ phobia”, admitting it “could be a psychological problem”. A year ago, the president’s mindset was thrust into the open when he was filmed reacting strongly to coughing in the Oval Office. “I don’t like that. If you’re going to cough, please, leave the room,” Trump said, shaking his head.

According to Politico, during the 2016 election campaign, it was his then-spokeswoman Hope Hicks would be on standby to offer Trump squirts of Purell hand sanitiser.

That is was possibly Hicks who transmitted the coronavirus to Trump shows how it ironically took a pandemic for the president to let his guard down. The 74-year-old has repeatedly played down the severity of the virus, stating it will “fade away”. He has often refused to wear a mask, and mocked his rival, Joe Biden, for donning one.

Why would a germaphobe become less rather than more cautious in a pandemic? Trump’s has said he wanted to “play it down” to avoid panic. Less forgivingly, his critics accuse him of cynically dismissing the virus as it spotlights his government’s failure in an election year to prevent the deaths of at least 209,000 Americans.

Trump is back to his tweeting self following relative quiet during the past few days. He has been retweeting this morning, including a post from “Black Voices for Trump” and, oddly, a tweet posted more than a year ago by mega supporters and video bloggers, Diamond and Silk.

Here is a list of some people around Trump who have tested positive:

  • First lady Melania Trump
  • Senior advisor Hope Hicks
  • Campaign manager Bill Stepien
  • Former advisor Kellyanne Conway
  • Former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie (hospitalised)
  • Senator Thom Tillis, Republican-North Carolina
  • Senator Mike Lee, Republican-Utah
  • Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame University

Trump tweets thanks to supporters

The US president is awake and has thanked supporters who gathered outside the hospital on Saturday night.

Poll suggests Joe Biden opens widest lead in a month

A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democratic candidate Joe Biden has opened his widest lead in a month in the US presidential race after Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.

The national opinion survey, taken over 2-3 October, shows “little indication of an outpouring of support for the president beyond Trump’s core group of followers,” Reuters said.

Biden had a 10-point lead over Trump among adults who are expected to cast ballots, with 51% to 41%. The poll showed a 1 to 2 point higher lead than previous polls in recent weeks, although was still within the survey’s 5% plus or minus margin of error, so should be read with caution.

Saturday Night Live has chosen to sketch the Trump-Biden debate, rather than the president’s infection. Maybe they were unsure how to strike the right comedic tone:

The show didn’t ignore the hospitalisation altogether, though. Host Chris Rock opened by referencing the news. “President Trump is in the hospital from Covid, and I just want to say that my heart goes out to Covid,” he joked.

When assessing Trump’s health state it’s critical to remember coronavirus is not the type of disease where you necessarily get hit hard and fast and then slowly recover. It can be more insidious than that.

Take a look at the course of the disease with Trump’s ally, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He sent out similarly upbeat messages saying he was experiencing mild symptoms, and just like Trump, he continued to work through it.

But ten days after his positive test, he was in intensive care.

What does this tell us? It explains why Trump’s doctors say he is “not out of the woods” and also that the first two weeks of October could feel very, very drawn out.

Here’s Johnson’s message to the British public a week after diagnosis, in comparison to Trump’s last night.

Former US President Barack Obama has commented on Trump’s infection:

Good morning (if you’re in Washington DC) and hello to the rest of the world.

Oliver Holmes here, booting up our US Politics live blog for what will certainly not be a lazy Sunday. Donald Trump remains hospitalised with Covid-19, with doctors administering drugs that are still in trials. The US election is just a month away.

Here are the main developments for those who have been sleeping, or just taking a breather:

  • Trump posted a video message on Saturday evening saying that he is “doing well”, his wife Melania is “doing very well” and the next few days will be the “real test” after he was taken to hospital with Covid-19.
  • The 74-year-old appeared pale and a little hoarse-sounding but the video was a chance to assess his condition for the first time after conflicting reports on his health.
  • His medical team says: “while not out of the woods yet, the team remains cautiously optimistic”.
  • Top Trump aide Nick Luna has tested positive for Covid-19.
  • Joe Biden’s campaign is committing to releasing the results of all future Covid tests the candidate takes.
  • US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will depart for Japan on Sunday but will not go to Mongolia and South Korea as originally planned, after Trump’s diagnosis.
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Newly spotted Clone Wars Easter egg in Ahsoka season 1 might be a huge hint at the season 2 plot
One Ahsoka detail might be a huge hint for the future
Total Film
Total Film
Why Unrecognisable Kelly Osbourne Is Risking Everything to Buy Back the 'MTV House' After Ozzy's Death
Kelly Osbourne has shared her family's attempts to buy back the Beverly Hills MTV House from The Osbournes, amid grief over Ozzy's death and her split from Sid Wilson. The property holds strong family memories she is determined to reclaim.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Your Retirement Needs a Sketchbook, Not Just a Spreadsheet: This Book Focuses on Your Life Goals Rather Than the Math
"Your Retirement Sketchbook" focuses on the hardest part of retirement planning — figuring out what your retirement life will look like.
Kiplinger
Kiplinger
Louis Theroux's Inside The Manosphere Should Be Mandatory Viewing For Young Men And Their Parents
This was a wake-up call.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
“I'm, like, sobbing… in tears, because it was so… I mean, he's a poet”: Flea talks collabs and a new Chili Peppers album
He admits he cried when he heard Nick Cave’s vocal on his solo album
MusicRadar
MusicRadar
Full Masters Of The Universe Trailer Revealed Jared Leto's Voice As Skeletor, And I've Got Thoughts
By the power of Greyskull, I am confused.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play