On Thursday, a White House official acknowledged that White House advisor Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday after flying with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One to the presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday and flying with him aboard Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to a Wednesday rally in Duluth, Minnesota.
“Some people close to Hicks were told that she is experiencing symptoms of the disease,” Bloomberg News reported, adding, “Hicks was seen on Tuesday riding maskless in a staff van with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, campaign adviser Jason Miller and others. When they returned to Washington on Tuesday, Stephen Miller and Hicks were seen sharing an umbrella as they exited Air Force One in the rain. … Hicks felt poorly in Minnesota on Wednesday and was quarantined aboard Air Force One during the return flight, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“Multiple White House staffers have tested positive for the virus, including Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and one of the president’s personal valets. After earlier positive cases close to the president, the White House instituted a daily testing regimen for the president’s senior aides. Others who will be in close proximity to the president and vice president, including reporters, are also tested every day,” AP reported
White House spokesman Judd Deere stated, “The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously. White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is traveling,” as Fox News noted.
“Earlier this year, roughly eight staffers, including Secret Service personnel, tested positive for the virus after a Trump rally. A White House cafeteria worker also tested positive for coronavirus in July,” NBC News added.
Hicks worked at Hiltzik Strategies, where one of the clients was Ivanka Trump, who brought her to work for the Trump Corporation and Ivanka Trump’s fashion and lifestyle brand in 2014 before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign.
The Daily Wire reported in February:
Hicks has been with President Donald Trump for years and joined Trump’s presidential campaign from the Trump Corporation, where she’d worked since August of 2014, per her official bio. After earning her stripes on the Trump campaign as press secretary, she joined the Trump transition team in the communications department and fulfilled a number of roles in the Trump White House until finally landing in the White House communications office, serving as the “White House Director of Strategic Communications.”
She left the White House in 2018 to work for Fox Corporation, then returned to the White House in February.