Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien aboard Air Force One, flying from Manchester, New Hampshire to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Aug. 28, 2020. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, has tested positive for the CCP virus, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh confirmed late Friday.
Stepien is expected to work from home in quarantine.
Stepien replaced former campaign manager Brad Parscale in July. The 42-year-old Stepien was previously the campaign’s deputy manager. For Trump’s 2016 campaign, he had served as a senior political adviser and a national field director. Stepien later served as a White House political director in the Trump administration.
Prior to working under Trump, Stepien worked for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as manager for Christie’s gubernatorial campaigns in 2009 and in 2013. He also worked for other New Jersey Republican politicians prior becoming involved with Christie’s campaign.
The news of Stepien’s COVID-19 diagnosis comes after Trump and first lady Melania Trump announced in the early hours of Friday that they had tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.
Trump emerged from the White House roughly 17 hours following the announcement, making his way to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
President Donald Trump arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., on Marine One helicopter on Oct. 2, 2020. Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement on Friday that Trump will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed over the next few days “out of an abundance of caution.” She also said that Trump “remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day.”
Stepien was known to have been with the president on Air Force One flying to and from Cleveland, Ohio, for the first presidential debate. White House aide Hope Hicks was also aboard the aircraft on Sept. 29.
News emerged late Thursday that Hicks had tested positive for the CCP virus. Hicks’s case prompted Trump and the first lady to also be tested for the virus. Hicks also traveled with the president to Minnesota on Sept. 30 for a fundraiser and rally.
Counselor to the president Hope Hicks walks from Marine One to accompany President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on Sept. 30, 2020. Alex Brandon/AP Photo
A number of others have since tested positive for the CCP virus, including Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. They had all attended a White House event on Sept. 26 at the Rose Garden where Trump announced his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
The president of the University of Notre Dame, Rev. John Jenkins, also in attendance at the event, announced on Friday that he tested positive for the virus. He went into quarantine on Sept. 28, reported The Associated Press.
