Add yet another name to the list of Republicans close to Donald Trump who have tested positive for COVID-19 this week: Trump’s re-election campaign manager, Bill Stepien.
According to Politico, which broke the story, Stepien was diagnosed on Friday night and will be quarantining from home while continuing to work on the Trump campaign remotely. According to Politico, people associated with the Trump campaign said Stepien has experienced “mild flu-like symptoms.” It’s not known how Stepien contracted the illness, though he spent time with Trump in the White House on Monday and traveled with Trump to Cleveland on Air Force One for the first presidential debate on Tuesday.
Stepien, who so far has not released a public statement confirming the diagnosis, is the 12th person in Trump’s immediate orbit to test positive for the coronavirus on Friday.
Six other people who have received that diagnosis — Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, former adviser Kellyanne Conway, aide Hope Hicks, Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and University of Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins — attended a White House Rose Garden event on Saturday where the president formally announced his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. (Barrett has said that she contracted COVID-19 earlier this year and has since recovered.)
Current Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also announced on Friday that she’s tested positive for COVID-19. She last saw Trump on Friday, and did not attend the event at the White House.
In addition, three journalists who work at the White House have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a memo from White House Correspondent’s Association President Zeke Miller, including New York Times correspondent Michael D. Shear. A White House staffer who works with the press has also tested positive.