President Trump’s top White House staffers are increasingly working from home as routines are upended following two recent confirmed coronavirus cases in the building.
Aides must now wear face masks in the West Wing and have been donning them around the building. The White House mess operates solely through a takeout window, and meetings are being held in the most spacious rooms available or by teleconference. Last week, Vice President Mike Pence led meetings alone in a secure room by phone instead of in the Situation Room, Politico reports.
Three of Trump’s top advisers have been in quarantine this month after coming into contact with a staffer who later tested positive: Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary, who also leads communications for the coronavirus task force. One of Trump’s personal aides tested positive a day earlier.
“I haven’t seen Mike Pence, and I miss him,” Trump said during a meeting with governors last week. Pence, whose office said he would not enter quarantine after a potential exposure, instead began self-isolating.
The administration has called for states to reopen and businesses to resume where appropriate, leading governors, business owners, and customers to contend with many of the same employee safety issues.
Trump, who has said he is reluctant to wear a mask, will meet this week with restaurant executives and Republican governors at the White House. He has met frequently with governors during the crisis.
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Eager to break out of the White House, Trump traveled this month to Arizona, where he visited an N95 mask manufacturing facility and met with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. Last week, he traveled to a medical supplies distributor in Pennsylvania.
The president was at Camp David in Maryland over the weekend with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Republican lawmakers.
In June, he will attend the U.S. Military Academy graduation at West Point and a holiday fireworks display at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.
