Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien Tests Positive for Covid

Photo credit: Saul Loeb, AFP via Getty Images.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien is the latest from among the president’s inner circle to test positive for the coronavirus.

According to a Politico story published late on Friday night, the 42-year-old chief of Trump’s re-election effort was diagnosed with Covid-19 just hours earlier and is suffering “mild flu-like symptoms.” Stepien will self-quarantine and help oversee the campaign from home during his isolation period.

Stepien joins top White House aide Hope Hicks, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Republican Sens. Mike Lee (UT) and Thom Tillis (NC), as well as First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump himself in having been identified in the past 36 hours as having the virus.

After an infamously disastrous Trump campaign rally in Tulsa back in June, Brad Parscale was demoted weeks later to running digital operations for Trump’s re-election effort and his deputy, Stepien, was promoted to campaign manager.

Stepien’s depute, Justin Clark, will run the day-to-day operations in the campaign’s Arlington, Va. headquarters until Stepien is clear of the virus and deemed healthy and safe enough to return to work.