Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Trump’s eldest son and a top fund-raising official for the Trump re-election campaign, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota on Friday with Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., in anticipation of attending a huge fireworks display where the president was set to speak.
They did not travel aboard Air Force One, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive.
As a routine precaution, people who come in close contact with Trump are screened for the virus.
Guilfoyle is the third person in possible proximity to Trump known to have contracted the virus.
A personal valet who served Trump his food and the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the virus in May.
Guilfoyle was not experiencing symptoms.
She and the younger Trump never met up with the president’s entourage.
Out of caution, the couple drove back from South Dakota to the East Coast.
Still, that another person who was expected to be near Trump tested positive — and someone who most staff aides consider a member of the Trump family — is likely to renew attention around potential risks to the president.
Guilfoyle attended Trump’s indoor rally last month in Tulsa, Okla.
Before and since then, some campaign staff and Secret Service personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate who was also at the rally, said this week that he had been hospitalized with the virus.
Sergio Gor, the chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance Committee, said in a statement that Ms. Guilfoyle “was immediately isolated to limit any exposure.”
He added, “She’s doing well, and will be retested to ensure the diagnosis is correct since she’s asymptomatic, but as a precaution will cancel all upcoming events.”
The younger Trump, despite testing negative, was self-isolating and canceling public events as a precaution, Mr. Gor said.
Even as outbreaks have emerged in the South and West and as states across the country report a record number of cases each day, White House officials — and Trump in particular — have minimized their focus on the virus in public appearances.
In an interview on Wednesday, Trump indicated that he believed the virus was “going to sort of just disappear.”
The president’s aides recently modified protocols for people entering the White House grounds, abandoning routine temperature checks, for instance.
They have counseled people experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus to stay away.
But people who come in proximity to Trump and Pence are still tested for the coronavirus.