Live updates: Trump arrives at Walter Reed hospital after positive coronavirus test; two senators test positive

October 2, 2020 at 7:58 PM EDT

By David Fahrenthold, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura

President Trump contracted the novel coronavirus after months in which he and people around him — his aides, his children, even his golf club members — avoided taking basic steps to prevent the virus’s spread, such as wearing masks and avoiding large indoor crowds.

Now, dozens of people — donors, aides, Secret Service agents — who had been close to Trump before his diagnosis wondered whether they, too, might be infected. A whole world, with Trump at its center, suddenly faced the threat that the president had encouraged them to deny or understate.

Secret Service agents expressed their anger and frustration to colleagues and friends Friday, saying that the president’s actions have repeatedly put them at risk. “He’s never cared about us,” one agent told a confidant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal reaction.

Former Secret Service agents said that it was unheard of for agents to openly complain about their president but that some currently in the ranks had become convinced during the pandemic that Trump was willing to put his protectors in harm’s way.

Agents who work in field offices around the country complained that since late August, they are no longer being tested when they return home from working at a rally for the president.

“This administration doesn’t care about the Secret Service,” one current agent relayed in an internal discussion group. “It’s so obvious.”

Judd Deere, spokesman for the White House, said in a statement: “The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously.” Various staffs work together, he said, to “ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure.”

Trump aides note that every aide and visitor who sees the president is tested for the coronavirus with a rapid test, and top administration officials are tested every day.