Kimberly Guilfoyle, top fundraising official for Trump Campaign, tests positive for coronavirus
Guilfoyle, who is also Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, was not on Air Force One before traveling to South Dakota.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Donald Trump’s eldest son and a top fundraising official for the Trump reelection campaign, tested positive for the coronavirus Friday before a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, a person familiar with her condition said.
Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota with Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., in anticipation of attending a huge fireworks display where the president was set to speak. They did not travel aboard Air Force One, according to the person familiar with her condition, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive.
As a routine precaution, people who come in close contact with Trump are screened for the virus.
Guilfoyle is the third person in possible proximity to Trump known to have contracted the virus. A personal valet who served Trump his food and the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the virus in May.
Guilfoyle was not experiencing symptoms, the person familiar with her condition said. She and the younger Trump never met up with the president’s entourage, the person said. Out of caution, the couple plans to drive back from South Dakota to the East Coast, the person said.
Still, that another person who was expected to be near Trump tested positive — and someone whom most staff aides consider a member of the Trump family — is likely to renew attention around potential risks to the president.
Even as outbreaks have emerged in the South and West and as states across the country report a record number of cases each day, White House officials — and Trump in particular — have minimized their focus on the virus in public appearances. In an interview Wednesday, the president indicated that he believed the virus was “going to sort of just disappear.”
The president’s aides recently modified protocols for people entering the White House grounds, abandoning routine temperature checks, for instance. They have counseled people experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus to stay away.
But people who come in proximity to Trump and Pence are still tested for the coronavirus.
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