“Don tested positive at the start of the week and has been quarantining out at his cabin since the result,” the spokesman said. “He’s been completely asymptomatic so far and is following all medically recommended COVID-19 guidelines.”
Trump Jr. becomes the latest figure close to the President to test positive for Covid-19. In addition to himself, first lady Melania Trump, his youngest son Barron, his chief of staff Mark Meadows and a number of other top aides both in his campaign and in the White House have tested positive in recent months.
Trump Jr. was among the roughly 250 guests who attended the White House’s indoor election night party, where nearly every attendee was seen not wearing a mask. Other party attendees have since tested positive, including Meadows, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and White House political affairs director Brian Jack. A source familiar with the matter had told CNN at the time that all guests were to receive a rapid test for Covid-19.
One prior White House celebration has already been deemed a “superspreader event.” Several guests tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a nomination ceremony in late September for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, where attendees commingled, shook hands and few wore masks.
The White House says it constantly tests those around the President and Vice President Mike Pence, but officials often take a lax approach to following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to wear a mask and social distance.
Trump Jr. has spread a significant amount of misinformation about the coronavirus. Late last month, he told Fox News that the number of deaths from Covid-19 is “almost nothing” at a time when 228,000-plus Americans had succumbed to the virus.
Over the summer, his Twitter account was restricted for sharing a video that spread false information about the drug hydroxychloroquine and he shared a Facebook meme spreading doubt about the effectiveness of masks against the coronavirus.
The news comes as Covid is spreading throughout the country, with daily case records being set nearly every day in November, and is also spreading throughout Washington’s halls of power. Two Republican senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have announced in the last few days that they tested positive and to this point 26 House members and 10 senators have so far tested positive or been presumed positive since the beginning of the pandemic.
This story has been updated with additional information.
You may also like
-
UK coronavirus variant has been reported in 86 countries, WHO says
-
NASA technology can help save whale sharks says Australian marine biologist and ECOCEAN founder, Brad Norman
-
California Twentynine Palms: Explosives are missing from the nation’s largest Marine Corps base and an investigation is underway
-
Trump unhappy with his impeachment attorney’s performance, sources say
-
Lunar New Year 2021: Ushering in the Year of the Ox