Update (1205ET): President Trump told a reporter during a press conference with the Italian PM Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office on Thursday that he wasn’t worried that he might be infected with the virus following meeting with the sick Brazilian official at Mar-a-Lago.
“Let’s put it this way: I’m not concerned.”
Additionally, the American press has just reported that Brazilian President Bolsonaro has been tested for the coronavirus after calling the pandemic a “fantasy” earlier in the week.
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For once, American officials aren’t the ones putting President Trump at risk.
Reuters reported Thursday that a Brazilian government official who recently posed for a photo with Trump during President Jair Bolsonaro’s recent trip to Mar-a-Lago has tested positive for the virus in Brazil, as the outbreak in that country climbs to 38 confirmed cases (as some epidemiologists quietly speculate that the warmer climates of South America and Africa are much less hospitable for the virus).
The official’s name is Fabio Wajngarten, and he is pictured above to the reader’s right (and President Trump’s left). He’s Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary. He and his wife also dined with President Trump and Melania during a weekend dinner.
Wajngarten has said that he is feeling ‘healthy’ despite the diagnosis.
While several Congressmen and at least two senators have now chosen to self-quarantine or close offices because they or their staff had come into contact with coronavirus carriers, none of them have been diagnosed. This is probably the closest Trump has come to an individual who actually may have been contagious at the time.
Hopefully Trump doesn’t get the virus, because, as is plain to see, he would qualify for the highest-risk group.
Will Trump quarantine Mar-a-Lago now?