En route to Dubrovnik — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tested negative for COVID-19 in a precautionary screening following reports that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have contracted the illness.
“We’re praying for the president and the first lady that they’ll have a speedy recovery,” Pompeo told reporters. “I spoke with the vice president’s office this morning as well. We’re taking this, obviously, very seriously and we’ll do everything we can to keep everyone safe, including you all.”
Pompeo said he has not been in Trump’s presence since the Sept. 15 signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, due to a busy travel schedule that took him to multiple Latin American and Eastern Mediterranean countries over the last two weeks. The airborne test was his fourth over that span.
“I am feeling fantastic,” he told reporters while descending into Croatia. “I’m negative, yes, as of 20 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago.”
State Department officials also coordinated with Pompeo’s Croatian hosts to “make sure that they’re comfortable” with maintaining his scheduled appointments, the secretary said.
Medical examiners have cleared him to proceed with plans to travel to Florida Saturday and northeast Asia on Sunday, but his team will continue to evaluate those trips.
“We’ll spend the next few hours to try to figure out what the medical team says,” he said. “Just gotta make sure we’re doing what the medical team says makes sense and we want to make sure that we’re doing everything we need to do in Washington, make sure that we’re covered down there as well.”
