President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania have tested positive for the coronavirus. The explosive news came hours after his close adviser Hope Hicks tested positive for the disease in a report that was leaked to Bloomberg News. Trump announced the news of his own diagnosis in a late night tweet on Thursday saying, “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” According to the New York Times, “Officials at the White House have known about Ms. Hicks’s likely diagnosis since Wednesday evening, when she traveled with the president aboard Air Force One to Minnesota for a campaign rally in Duluth.” She apparently began exhibiting symptoms during the rally and traveled back with the President and his staff on Air Force One. Trump continued on to his golf course in New Jersey as though there was nothing wrong despite being in close contact with a known infected person. There he met with about 100 people, likely exposing all of them. According to reports Trump appeared “lethargic” during the event and later White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reported that the President was experiencing “mild symptoms.” Mr. Meadows responded to a reporter’s question of whether the President was taking hydroxychloroquine, the unproven drug that he has long touted. He was not wearing a mask. 

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, who shared a debate stage with Trump on Tuesday (where the President shouted nearly continuously for about 90 minutes), has reported testing negative for the virus. Biden has been careful about wearing masks and observing social distancing, which Trump repeatedly mocked him for even during the debate. In fact, Trump’s entire family and entourage refused to wear masks while seated in the audience during the debate, openly flouting the rules of the event location. The Guardian reported, “A Cleveland clinic doctor in a white lab coat had even tried to approach Trump family guests, offering a mask. She was unsuccessful. Someone shook their head at her as she came close.” Vice President Mike Pence has also tested negative and some have raised the possibility of the 25th Amendment being invoked in case Trump’s condition worsens.  

White House Physician Sean Conley released an official statement confirming Mr. and Mrs. Trump’s diagnoses. The next week will be crucial in determining how the virus’s symptoms manifest in the President. One medical expert explained, “just knowing that he’s a male, over 70, and appears to be overweight, right away,