On a Saturday Night in Florida, a Presidential Party Became a Coronavirus Hot Zone

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-mar-a-lago.html

A weekend getaway at Mar-a-Lago put the president in contact with several people who later tested positive for the virus. He said he has no symptoms.


President Trump hosting President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, center left, on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Three of Mr. Bolsonaro’s aides who accompanied him to that dinner later tested positive for the coronavirus.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

By Peter Baker and Katie Rogers

March 14, 2020, 11:12 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The lights were low and the disco balls spinning as a cake with a fiery sparkler shooting flames into the air was brought out to a robust rendition of “Happy Birthday,” joined by President Trump. The birthday girl, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., then pumped her fist in the air and called out, “Four more years!”

It was a lavish, festive, carefree evening at Mar-a-Lago a week ago Saturday in what in hindsight now seems like a last hurrah for the end of one era and the beginning of another. In the days since then, the presidential estate in Florida has become something of a coronavirus hot zone. At least four Mar-a-Lago guests from last weekend have said they are infected and others have put themselves into quarantine.

So far, neither the president nor his family has reported feeling sick or is known to have isolated themselves. The White House physician said late Friday night that there was no need for Mr. Trump to be tested since he had exhibited no symptoms of the virus and the chances of transmission were low, even though the president had said hours earlier that he “most likely” would get tested. His son and Ms. Guilfoyle checked with medical experts and were told that they did not need to be tested either.

But the Mar-a-Lago petri dish has become a kind of metaphor for the perils of group gatherings in the age of coronavirus, demonstrating how quickly and silently the virus can spread. No one is necessarily safe from encountering it, not senators or diplomats or even the most powerful person on the planet seemingly secure in a veritable fortress surrounded by Secret Service agents.

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[livetohike]

1. Karma-Lago. The Petri dish for disease. n/t

[LuvLoogie]

2. I think Ivanka is carrier zero for the Mar-A-Gogo Flu.

She gave it to Daddy and that Australian official. Daddy gave it to Brazil.

[empedocles]

3. Perhaps it would be good for the world, if ivanka tested positive, that might wake up trump

perhaps he might even get out of people's productive ways.

[murielm99]

4. If he or his grifter relatives test positive,

if they get tested at all, they will keep it secret. They might even continue to go about their business and stay in contact with people.

Trump in particular will do that. Did you see him shaking hands with all his co-conspirators yesterday in the Rose Garden?

[LiberalBrooke]

5. Too many people he's been in contact with have tested positive later.

He is probably a carrier and will not listen to anyone who dares to tell him to isolate himself. Is there even anyone surrounding him who has the balls to do anything but praise him?