# Trump kept mum on Thursday test result and instructed White House adviser who had tested positive, ‘Don’t tell anyone’

WASHINGTON — President Trump didn’t disclose a positive result from a rapid test for COVID-19 on Thursday while awaiting the findings from a more thorough coronavirus screening, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump received a positive result on Thursday evening before making an appearance on Fox News in which he didn’t reveal those results. Instead, he confirmed earlier reports that one of his top aides had tested positive for coronavirus and mentioned the second test he had taken that night for which he was awaiting results.

“I’ll get my test back either tonight or tomorrow morning,” Trump said during the interview. At 1 a.m. on Friday, the president tweeted that he indeed had tested positive.

“
‘Who the f— said that?’
”

— President Donald Trump, learning that an adviser had called his medical condition concerning

Under White House protocols, the more reliable test that screens a specimen from deeper in the nasal passage is administered only after a rapid test shows a positive reading. Based on people familiar with the matter, the president’s tests followed that protocol.

As the virus spread among the people closest to him, Trump also asked one adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump said, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.

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