Trump contradicts his press secretary on how often he is tested
“I don’t know about more than one,” Trump responded to a reporter who asked why he was tested more than once a day. “I do probably on average a test every two days, three days, and I don’t know of any time I’ve taken two in one day, but I could see that happening.”
Speaking during a morning briefing just hours earlier, press secretary Kayleigh McEneny described Trump as the “most tested man in America” who doesn’t risk spreading the virus to others.
“He’s tested more than anyone, multiple times a day,” she said. “And we believe that he’s acting appropriately.”
Previously, the White House had indicated Trump received regular coronavirus tests, as did people who come into close proximity to him. But the frequency of the tests — multiple per day — wasn’t known.
Still, the high frequency of Trump’s coronavirus tests offered a new picture of the administration’s efforts to protect him from a virus that continues to rage across the country.
Asked later to detail more fully his testing regimen, McEnany would say only that Trump is tested often but would not get into further specifics.
“Sometimes it is more than one time a day,” she said.
McEneny said Trump has been “consistent” on masks, even though he refused for months to be photographed wearing one and has downplayed their importance in containing coronavirus.
On Monday, Trump tweeted a black and white photograph of himself wearing a mask while visiting Walter Reed National Medical Center two weekends ago. He wrote that some people called mask-wearing “patriotic.”
Yet a few hours later, Trump was seen at his hotel in Washington without wearing a mask, a violation of local rules.
This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.
CNN’s Nikki Carvajal contributed to this report.
