The Trump White House is now a coronavirus hotspot. With the news of Mike Pence press secretary Katie Miller (wife of white nationalist Stephen Miller) and Donald Trump's military-provided personal valet (read: Diet Coke deliverer) testing positive, as well as unidentified Secret Service members, that much seems clear.
Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield are now both in quarantine after coming into contact with infected individuals. Now the administration's most visible non-ridiculous voice, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says he'll be retreating to a 14-day "modified" quarantine as well.
As reported by CNN, Fauci's version of a "modified" quarantine means that he still "might" travel to his private National Institutes of Health office, but otherwise will be teleworking from home. He'll still scheduled to appear to testify before the Senate, but that might be changed to a video link; if summoned back to the White House he'll go there as well.
It's likely all three doctors were exposed to the virus via Katie Miller, who attends White House coronavirus task force meetings. It's also likely that everyone in the top ranks of the administration can rely on the absolute best medical care, the very instant symptoms of infection might appear, and so can expect better outcomes than the vast majority of the country.
Having a good chunk of the coronavirus task force directly exposed to the virus, however, doesn't seem so far to be making much impression in the White House. There is a widespread unwillingness by Trump's top associates to wear masks in the White House—seemingly to ensure they do not run afoul of a delusional and sociopathic boss who might mock or attack them for doing so. There's no word that Dear Leader will change his positions on that.
Trump and Pence have both "reopened" their own interstate travel, making public appearances while wearing masks never, in Trump's case, and only if humiliated into it in Pence's.
The White House, in other words, still seems quite content to set an example for the rest of America by refusing to treat the pandemic with even half the seriousness warranted. If anything, we can imagine how irate Trump has been getting that individuals in his immediate orbit keep having the raw audacity to test positive, damaging his proclamations that the pandemic is fading and Americans should get back to work.
And the White House's inability to keep the virus out of even the task force responsible for planning how to keep other Americans from getting the virus does not exactly instill confidence that the Trump administration either has a clue what they are doing or particularly care.
Mostly, though, it remains uncanny just how many people directly adjacent to Dear Leader and Vice President Jesus Part II keep coming down with COVID-19 infections without, we are repeatedly told, either of those great genetic stalwarts ever catching the same bug themselves. It's a remarkable string. Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago home was an absolute cesspool of the virus early in the pandemic; Trump was unaffected. Trump-allied lawmakers contract the virus; Dear Leader remains immune; The person who brings Donald Trump his food tested positive; Trump remains resolutely virus free, we are assured by individuals who lie about everything, all the time, in whatever ways are necessary to sell Trump's insisted-upon narrative of absolute superiority in every possible and impossible way.