Today in one sentence: Trump tested positive for the coronavirus and was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center after his condition worsened; Trump knew Thursday morning that Hope Hicks tested positive for coronavirus and continued with a full schedule of events anyway; Biden and Harris both tested negative for the coronavirus; the Justice Department and FBI are preparing for Election Day civil unrest; and Melania Trump mocked migrant children separated at the border, saying "give me a fucking break."

1/ Trump and Melania tested positive for the coronavirus months after playing down the pandemic that has killed more than 205,000 Americans and sickened millions more. Trump reportedly has a low-grade fever, nasal congestion, and a cough. He received an infusion of an experimental antibody cocktail and was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center Friday afternoon by helicopter after his condition worsened. He will remain at Walter Reed for a few days. Earlier in the day, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters that Trump had “mild symptoms.” Late Thursday night, Trump tweeted: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!“ Trump, 74, was diagnosed hours after one of his closest advisers, Hope Hicks, tested positive Thursday morning. Hicks traveled with Trump on Air Force One and Marine One this week to the presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday and to a campaign rally in Minnesota on Wednesday. After the White House learned of Hicks’ symptoms, Trump flew to New Jersey for a fundraiser anyway, delivered a speech, and was in close contact with dozens of other people, including campaign supporters at a roundtable event. At a political dinner Thursday night, Trump told guests that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.” While he did not appear ill at the time, he did not speak to reporters when he returned to the White House. The president’s physician, meanwhile, said Trump was “well.” Hicks is showing symptoms. Three days ago, at the presidential debate, Trump mocked Biden for wearing a mask every time he appeared in public. “I put a mask on when I think I need it,” Trump said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from it. And he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” The Trump campaign announced that all of Trump’s planned events are being postponed or going virtual. Trump also canceled his plans to travel to a rally in Florida. There are 32 days before the election on Nov. 3. (Washington Post / New York Times / Bloomberg / Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / The Guardian / Politico / ABC News / NPR / CNBC / New Yorker / NPR / CNBC / BuzzFeed News / HuffPost / Los Angeles Times / Politico / Daily Beast / NBC News)

  • 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

  • Global: Total confirmed cases: ~34,439,000; deaths: ~1,026,000

  • U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~7,313,000; deaths: ~209,000

  • Source: Johns Hopkins University

  • 💻 Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus Live Blogs: NPR / NBC News / CNN / CBS News / USA Today / New York Magazine / Los Angeles Times

  • 💻 COVID-19 Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / CNBC / The Guardian

  • [READ] The letter from White House physician Dr. Sean Conley about Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis. (NBC News)

  • The House approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief measure. (Politico)

  • Dow futures plunged in early morning trading. (CNBC / Bloomberg / NBC News)

  • The White House Super-Spreader Tracker:

  • ➕ Trump

  • ➕ Melania Trump

  • ➕ Hope Hicks

  • ➕ Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (Axios / Politico)

  • ➕ Sen. Mike Lee (Axios / Politico)

  • ➖ Pence (CNN / Politico)

  • ➖ Karen Pence

  • ➖ Barron Trump

  • ➖ Ivanka Trump

  • ➖ Jared Kushner

  • ➖ Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Comey Barrett (Previously tested positive)

  • ➖ Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar

  • ➖ Defense Secretary Mark Esper

  • ➖ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

  • ➖ United States National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow

  • Mike Pence and his wife Karen tested negative for COVID-19.

  • Sources: Axios / USA Today / Slate

  • What Trump did in the days before his coronavirus test. In the past week, Trump has debated Democratic nominee Joe Biden, held two rallies, participated in a dozen events, and interacted with thousands of supporters and donors. (Vox / Washington Post / Politico)

  • “No one was wearing masks” during Trump’s debate preparation, according to Chris Christie. (USA Today)

  • [Analysis] Pandemonium Inside the White House as Trump Contracts COVID-19. “No One Knows Where This Is Going to Go.” (Vanity Fair)

  • [Analysis] Now What? “Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis raises a number of questions about when the president was infected and how many other people in the White House might be sick.” (The Atlantic)

  • [Analysis] What Trump’s positive coronavirus test means for the presidential campaign. “If the White House sticks to that timeline, it means that, at least for half the time remaining before Election Day, Trump will have to suspend the campaign rallies that he had been holding regularly.” (New Yorker)

  • [Analysis] How Will Trump’s Positive COVID-19 Test Affect The Election? (FiveThirtyEight)

  • [Analysis] The October surprise is here: the health of Donald Trump and that of his wife and senior advisers, and what it all will mean for the governance of the United States. (New Yorker)

  • [Analysis] The Patient-in-Chief Will Affect How Americans See Covid’s Risk. “Trump and his staff have avoided some precautions taken by other Americans.” (Bloomberg)

  • [Analysis] How severe could Trump’s Covid-19 case be? “Although Trump has spent months downplaying the danger of the virus for himself and Americans, and frequently refuses to wear a mask, he also falls squarely into several higher-risk buckets — being over 70 years old, being male, and having obesity. These factors may raise his odds of severe disease and death from the coronavirus.” (Vox)

  • [Analysis] With COVID Hitting the West Wing, What Happens When the President Is a Liar? Two viruses—the coronavirus and disinformation—collide at the White House. (Mother Jones)

  • [Analysis] What Happens If A Presidential Nominee Can No Longer Run For Office? (FiveThirtyEight)

  • [Analysis] “This was avoidable”: Trump has been downplaying the virus from the start. In recent weeks, Trump has put himself and others at risk by holding mass gatherings, some indoors, and shunning mask use while claiming the end of the virus was just around the corner. (NBC News)

  • [Analysis] “This is the worst nightmare for the Trump campaign.” Trump once seemed impervious to October surprises is suddenly confronting one big enough to alter the election outcome. (Politico)

2/ Trump knew Thursday morning that Hope Hicks tested positive for coronavirus and continued with a full schedule of events anyway. The White House has not said when Trump first tested positive and it’s not known whether Trump was tested Thursday morning, but Trump said late Thursday he was awaiting results.After Trump learned that Hicks was positive Thursday, the White House modified plans for who would travel on Marine One and Air Force One to Trump’s fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club. On Monday, Trump claimed “We’re rounding the corner” on the pandemic. Trump was joined in the Rose Garden by Mike Pence; Alex Azar, Betsy DeVos, and the chief executive of Abbott Laboratories, Robert Ford. On Tuesday, Trump traveled on Air Force One to Cleveland for the first presidential debate with all of his adult children and senior members of his White House and campaign staff, including Jared Kushner, Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Lara Trump, Jason Miller, Stephen Miller, Mark Meadows, Robert O’Brien, and Rep. Jim Jordan. Nobody wore masks while boarding or deplaning. Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, was also seen on board without a mask and was later spotted getting into a staff van with Hicks. On Wednesday, Hicks was isolated in a separate cabin from the rest of the White House staff on Air Force One on the trip home from Wednesday’s rally in Minnesota night after falling ill. Trump left the White House on Thursday at 1 p.m. for the New Jersey fundraiser. Before his own diagnosis was made public, Trump sounded raspy on a call with Iowa voters and in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. Republican donors who attended Trump’s fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club, meanwhile, are reportedly “freaking out” and asking the Trump campaign and GOP officials for guidance on what to do. About 30 to 50 donors came close to Trump at the event. (Bloomberg / New York Times / CNBC / Politico / Daily Beast / HuffPost)

3/ Biden and Harris both tested negative for the coronavirus. Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff also tested negative. “I hope this serves as a reminder,” Biden said, “wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said Trump’s frequent dismissal of COVID-19 health guidelines “was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen.” (Axios / USA Today / CNBC / HuffPost / CNN)

4/ The Justice Department and FBI are preparing for Election Day civil unrest. While the department and the FBI monitors elections every year and engage in “extensive election planning,” including for “the possibility of violence,” officials familiar with the matter said the planning is particularly intense this year because of the unrest the country has already seen, and the nature of an election during a pandemic. Trump, meanwhile, has declined to say he’ll accept the election results, exaggerated claims about voter fraud, and urged supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.” (Washington Post)

5/ Trump condemned “all White supremacists” – two days after refusing to do so at the presidential debate. “I condemn the KKK, I condemn all White supremacists, I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Earlier in the day, however, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany wouldn’t give a declarative statement denouncing White supremacists. (Bloomberg / CNN / CBS News)

6/ Melania Trump mocked migrant children separated at the border, saying “give me a fucking break.” In a tape secretly recorded in 2018 by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and senior adviser to the first lady, Melania complained about being criticized for Trump’s policy of separating families who illegally crossed the southern border while at the same time needing to perform traditional first lady duties, such as preparing for Christmas. “They say I’m complicit. I’m the same like him, I support him. I don’t say enough I don’t do enough where I am,” she said. “OK, and then I do it and I say that I’m working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a fucking break.” Earlier in the conversation, the first lady complained about Christmas decorations at the White House, saying “I’m working […] my ass off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations?” (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post)

7/ Judge Amy Coney Barrett added her name to a “right to life ad” in 2006 that called for putting “an end to the barbaric legacy of Roe v. Wade.” Barrett was a law professor at the University of Notre Dame when she added her name to the two-page ad, published by the St. Joseph County Right to Life group, an extreme anti-choice organization in South Bend, Indiana. Barrett failed to disclose her participation in ad in documents submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, said the Senate intends to move “full steam ahead” on Barrett’s nomination. (The Guardian / Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / National Review / Politico)

  • White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany falsely claimed that Amy Coney Barrett is a “Rhodes scholar.” When reporter pointed out that Barrett did not receive a Rhodes Scholarship, but instead received a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College in Memphis, McEnany repleid: “My bad.” (Slate)

8/ Fox News paid Trump, Jr.‘s girlfriend’s former assistant upward of $4 million to avoid going to trial after an employee wrote a 42-page complaint accusing Kimberly Guilfoyle of repeated sexual harassment. In November, 2018, a young woman who had been one of Guilfoyle’s assistants at Fox News sent company executives a confidential, draft complaint demanding monetary relief. In July 2018, Fox News announced it “parted ways with Kimberly Guilfoyle” following a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement. (New Yorker / CNN)

Last year today: Day 986: "BULLSHIT."
Two years ago today: Day 621: Tired of winning.
Three years ago today: Day 256: An act of pure evil.