President Trump’s Valet Tested Positive for COVID-19

Earlier this week, news broke that one of President Trump’s valets tested positive for COVID-19. The individual, whose name was not released, is one of the 100-or-so-member White House team that takes care of the President’s and the first family’s personal needs. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he had “very little contact, personal contact, with this gentleman” and therefore was not at risk of infection. But how realistic is that, really?

He has two or three, says Kate Andersen Brower, author of The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. “They work in shifts and are typically the first person the President sees in the morning and the last person he sees at night.” Brower, who interviewed dozens of former and current White House staff members for her book, says valets typically come to the job from a military background. “They dress the President, shine his shoes, and they go into the Oval Office in the morning and stand by in case the President needs a cup of coffee or even a cough drop.”