October 6, 2020

President Donald Trump is back at the White House, trying to project a sense of normalcy. But the coronavirus still dominated his first day of work since leaving the hospital.

The president, possibly contagious, spent the day sealed off in the second-floor residence with a downsized staff around him. He only met in person with a few PPE-clad top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and assistant to the president Dan Scavino. Jared Kushner, Trump’s top aide and son-in-law, showed up at the White House, but only spoke to Trump by phone, despite working just a few hundred feet away from the president.

Elsewhere, the West Wing was a ghost town. Offices have been cleared out and staff has been encouraged to work from home. Numerous senior officials and near-entire departments are quarantined after either being exposed to the virus or contracting the disease itself. The few people still coming to the White House were suddenly wearing masks, a change for a culture that discouraged the practice for months. Staff was using hospital-grade disinfection methods to scrub down the rooms where ushers, butlers, cooks, florists and housekeepers kept the presidential mansion operating.

Read more:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/06/coronavirus-looms-trumps-first-day-back-work-426943