The fallout of Trump's positive test This is a special edition of the Politics Insider. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. After Donald Trump tweeted just before 1 a.m. that he and first lady Melania had tested positive for the coronavirus, almost everyone reading this email woke up to that shocking revelation. Meanwhile, journalists were scouring their notebooks and tape recorders for answers to so many key questions: How did the president get infected? Where had he travelled this week? How many people were in close proximity to him? Who else on his staff was exposed? How many people have tested positive? Were there early signs that something was awry? Answers came first as a trickle, then a firehose. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who chipped in during Trump's debate prep this week, revealed to CNN that of the five or six people in the prep room, "no one was wearing masks." Christie tested negative, but told the network he'd be tested again. While the entire Biden contingent wore masks at the debate venue in Cleveland, Ohio, "more than half" of Trump's side—including his four kids—didn't. After Trump's diagnosis, no one on his campaign informed Biden's team of possible exposure. Bloomberg reported that presidential aides "sensed on Wednesday that the president was feeling poorly," and some "began to worry he had the coronavirus." Voice of America reported that Trump departed a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, after an uncharacteristically short 45 minutes. Earlier this week, top Trump aide Hope Hicks was the first to announce a positive test. CNN reported that Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel got the same result on Wednesday. Utah Sen. Mike Lee also announced his own COVID-19 infection. Earlier this week, Lee met with Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett—where they were photographed wearing no masks . Barrett, who successfully beat COVID-19 earlier this year, later tested negative, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said her confirmation hearings would proceed as planned. The Rose Garden announcement of Barrett's nomination last Saturday might have helped spread the virus. Notre Dame President Reverend John Jenkins, who did not wear a mask at that event, also announced a positive COVID-19 test. This morning, Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows—who has so far tested negative—told reporters that senior staff learned of Hicks's diagnosis just as they departed for an indoor fundraiser at the president's golf course in New Jersey yesterday. Staffers who hadn't worn masks regularly started wearing them at the White House. Some only learned later last night. The trip went ahead, and the New York Times reported Trump came into close contact with "about 100 people" at the fundraiser. The Washington Post reported Trump didn't wear a mask on Thursday. A spate of testing has turned up plenty of negatives. That includes Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, as well as Trump's youngest son, Barron. Vice-President Mike Pence appears to be virus-free. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both key cabinet members, also tested negative. Vice-president Joe Biden, who kept his distance from the president on the debate stage, announced he'd also tested negative. The worst possible COVID carrier: With his complacency and disregard for others, writes Patricia Treble in Maclean's, Trump and his White House now epitomize the 'case clusters' and 'super-spreaders’ researchers say are driving the global pandemic. It’s hard to overlook the symbolism of Trump’s positive test emerging a day after a major study pointing to the importance of “super-spreaders” and clusters in the transmission of the virus. Trump has been identified by Cornell University researchers as the world’s “single largest driver of misinformation around COVID.” Throughout the pandemic, the U.S. president has recklessly and flagrantly disregarded science and factual information regarding the disease. Paul Wells on Trump's diagnosis: "Of course I wish the Trumps a speedy recovery," writes Wells, who reminds readers that wishing ill of any U.S. president, even one of the worst in history, never produces happy outcomes. And besides, he writes, the virus doesn't care either way. The virus has no opinion on whether there were some very fine people on both sides. The virus is not asking the Proud Boys to stand down and stand by. The virus doesn’t find Kim Jong Un’s letters beautiful. The virus would kill Joe Biden if it could, or you or me, and neither would it care if it failed. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It hooks onto living cells and makes them crank out more viruses . Everything that made it dangerous in March makes it dangerous today. So 2020 is turning into a bad year for people with short attention spans. Keep washing your hands, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Trump gets sick, America gets sicker: Scott Gilmore, writing in Maclean's, observed that the race for the White House now enters "utterly unknown territory" with only weeks before election day. And depending on the results of repeated coronavirus tests in the coming days—and the strength of Trump's immune system—the United States could be entering a scary period. The wave of implications may already be crashing over most of America’s senior leadership. Just three nights ago Trump spent two hours shouting at Biden while neither wore a mask. Senior generals, cabinet members, Senate and Congressional leadership, the vice president–all of these people will have been exposed and are likely being tested this morning. By this time next week the United States of America may be run by a skeleton crew as it navigates the worst economic crisis in 90 years, the worst pandemic in a century, and the most disruptive election in its history. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
