President Trump Says Rudy Giuliani Has Tested Positive for Coronavirus

Arya Hodjat, Tracy Connor
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani has apparently become the latest member of President Trump’s inner circle to test positive for COVID-19. Trump announced the diagnosis Sunday in a tweet.

The tweet read: “.@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!”

The Daily Beast has reached out to Giuliani for comment.

The former New York City mayor, who serves as Trump’s personal attorney, has been leading a slew of voter fraud lawsuits that are failing dismally.

On Monday, a maskless Giuliani met indoors with a cadre of Arizona state legislators. On Wednesday, an unmasked Giuliani testified at a Michigan legislative hearing, peddling further unproven claims about election fraud. On Thursday, he did the same in Georgia.

The reported diagnosis comes after Giuliani’s communications director, Christianné Allen revealed that she tested positive last month after attending the Trump lawyer’s now-infamous press conference at Republican National Committee headquarters. Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn announced his COVID-19 diagnosis on Nov. 25, days after appearing at the press conference. And Giuliani’s son, Andrew, also reportedly tested positive after attending the event.

The 76-year-old Republican is just one of dozens in the Trump orbit and the White House to contract the virus at the same time they’ve downplayed its severity.

Trump’s son, Don Jr., revealed last month that he tested positive, as did Corey Lewandowski, another Trump adviser who has been bringing bogus illegal voting and election fraud lawsuits.

Now Kayleigh McEnany Has COVID, Making a Dozen From Rose Garden Ceremony

Lewandowski was at Trump’s Election Night party at the White House that has since emerged as a possible superspreader event. Several attendees later tested positive including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump campaign legal aide David Bossie, longtime GOP strategist Jeff Miller, White House political director Brian Jack, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and several aides.

That outbreak came just weeks after perhaps the most high-profile outbreak in the world that ensnared the president and first lady Melania Trump. It spread to press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, advisers Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks, several GOP senators, Trump body man Nick Luna and several White House reporters.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!

Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Latest Stories

  • 'Honeymoon is not over' between Biden and progressives

    There's a stark contrast — at least for now — between the loud internal disputes between progressives and the Democratic Party’s more moderate establishment that have raged for the past five years.

  • In liberal San Francisco, white responses to George Floyd's killing proved revealing

    George Floyd’s death and the white response had placed an emphatic point on how twin scourges of economic disenfranchisement and racial segregation had manifested, with the pandemic as a backdrop. My role was victim and teacher all at once, and it enraged me. 

  • Trump signs anti-doping act into law

    The Rodchenkov Act, named after the whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov who helped expose Russia's state-sponsored doping, empowers prosecutors to seek fines of up to $1 million and jail terms of up to 10 years, as well restitution to victims. It was now up to the justice department to develop a robust program, cooperating with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and international law enforcement, to bring the guilty to justice and create zero tolerance for doping in sports, he added.

  • Israeli police cleared in shooting of maimed Palestinian boy

    Israeli authorities have cleared police of any wrongdoing in the case of a 9-year-old boy who lost an eye after apparently being shot in the face by an Israeli officer earlier this year. Malik Eissa was struck by what appeared to be a sponge-tipped munition last February and lost vision in his left eye, and his family says he hasn't returned to school because of recurring medical treatments and the embarrassment of being disfigured and reliant on a prosthetic eye. Residents said he had just gotten off a school bus in the Palestinian neighborhood of Issawiya in east Jerusalem when police opened fire.

  • 'Havana syndrome' likely caused by directed microwaves - US report

    The US report is the latest attempt to explain a mystery illness that affected diplomats in Cuba.

  • Joe Biden officially secures enough electors to become US president

    California certified its presidential election on Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House. Secretary of State Alex Padilla's formal approval of Mr Biden's win in the state brought his tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That's just over the 270 threshold for victory. These steps in the election are often ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a US president have drawn new scrutiny this year as President Donald Trump continues to deny Mr Biden's victory and pursues increasingly specious legal strategies aimed at overturning the results before they are finalised. Although it's been apparent for weeks that Mr Biden won the presidential election, his accrual of more than 270 electors is the first step toward the White House, said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University. "It is a legal milestone and the first milestone that has that status," Mr Foley said. "Everything prior to that was premised on what we call projections."

  • If it takes a miracle for Trump to stay in office, evangelicals like Michele Bachmann are fine with that

    As the inevitability of President Trump’s loss became apparent even to his acolyte Kellyanne Conway in recent days, his supporters increasingly pinned their hopes for a second term on a last-ditch appeal, not to the Supreme Court, but to the one power that can outvote it: God.

  • Cargo ship attacked off Yemen under unclear circumstances

    A cargo ship traveling past Yemen in the Gulf of Aden came under attack in unclear circumstances, maritime authorities said Saturday. The Gulf of Aden is a crucial route for global trade and has seen attacks attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels as its civil war rages on. The ship ended up off the small port city of Nishtun in Yemen's far east after coming under attack early Saturday morning, according to an alert from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization that is overseen by Britain's Royal Navy.

  • Japan, France, U.S. plan their first joint military drills in May: media

    Japan, France, and the United States will hold joint military drills on land and sea for the first time in May next year as the Chinese military steps up activity in the region, the Sankei newspaper said on Sunday. The exercises, conducted on one of Japan's uninhabited outlying islands, will focus on providing relief efforts during a natural disaster, but parts could also form the basis for a defence against attack, the paper said, without citing sources. Japan's defence ministry was not immediately available to respond to Reuters' request for confirmation.

  • Exclusive: Matt Hancock says vaccine will loosen Covid tiers before end of March

    The fast-track approval of the coronavirus vaccine means restrictions could be loosened before the end of March, the Health Secretary has said. In an interview with The Telegraph, Matt Hancock said he "can't wait to scrap this tiered system altogether" and for the country to "get back to living by mutual respect and personal responsibility, not laws set in Parliament". It marks a change in rhetoric and tone from Mr Hancock, who until now has been seen in Whitehall as one of the strongest proponents of the strictest possible measures. Asked whether the start of administering the vaccine to Britons this week could bring about a quicker end to the restrictions in the first three months of next year, Mr Hancock said: "Yes it will." He later said: "There's no doubt that having the vaccine early... will bring forward the moment when we can get rid of these blasted restrictions, but until then we have got to follow them. Help is on its way." Mr Hancock also said he was looking for "some absolutely wonderful nonagenarians... to come forward and be vaccinated". He refused to say whether he was thinking about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, both of whom are in their 90s.

  • The Reagans shows the roots of America's individualism problem

    As president, Donald Trump has had a bizarre habit of comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. But Ronald Reagan is probably the much better example for understanding Trump's rise to power and how he has governed. That's the implicit message of Showtime's four-part series, The Reagans, concluding Sunday night. Though neither Trump's name nor image appear in any of the four hour-long episodes, the series sets up clear parallels between the two men and their presidencies, a theme acknowledged by most of the major coverage of the show.On the surface, Reagan's sunny disposition and boundless optimism couldn't be a starker contrast from Trump's vision of "American carnage." But as The Reagans, directed by Matt Tyrnauer, suggests, Reagan's career path from Hollywood celebrity to Commander in Chief — his campaign slogan "Let's make America great again," his emphasis on law and order politics, his slashing of government regulations, his cozying up to the religious right, and his appeals to white racists through dog whistles about "states' rights" and "welfare queens" — all feels frighteningly familiar in the Trump era, even if Trump has never limited himself to just coded language.More than those connections between Reagan and Trump, however, the biggest takeaway from the Showtime documentary is how Reagan's drastic transformation of the GOP from a restrained party devoted to limited — but effective — government into a rabid political movement turned against the notion of government itself laid the foundation for Trump's direct assault on American democracy and his complete dereliction of duty as president. As Tyrnauer said to me on a recent call from his home in Los Angeles, "This is a story about our current political situation."In Reagan, the cult of rugged individualism overtook the Republican Party and remade American politics. Now, 40 years later amid a global pandemic, that unbridled individualism has shown its deadly dimensions in Trump and the Republicans' lack of response to COVID-19. Their dismissal of a coordinated government response in favor of encouraging Americans to decide what they think best, including whether or not to wear masks, has spelled catastrophe. And it's evident in the millions of Americans who — in refusing to wear masks, practice social distance, and momentarily deny their self-gratification — have selfishly exploited the language of "individual responsibility" as license for their own recklessness.Elected during a severe economic slump and with American morale slipping, Reagan, the son of two staunch Democrats and a former Roosevelt Democrat himself, rode to power on Americans' growing distrust of government, but he twisted that sentiment to particularly extreme ends. The Reagans shows the new president declaring in his first inaugural address in 1981, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."That became the reigning ethos of the Reagan era and of the GOP ever since. In the series' most chilling moment, First Lady Nancy Reagan propounds the couple's anti-government philosophy as she icily says to a reporter: "Somebody will say, 'we have a problem,' and the immediate response is, 'well, can't government do something about that,' instead of, 'can't I do something about that?'"That's basically been the attitude of Trump and the Republicans when it comes to the coronavirus. Despite clear scientific consensus and repeated recommendations from the CDC, Trump and most Republican governors have failed to issue lockdown orders or mask mandates. Even with more than 275,000 dead Americans and numbers likely to surge over the holiday season, some Republicans are now abandoning the language of personal responsibility for something more defiant. "My body, my choice," tweeted the incoming Georgia Congresswoman and QAnon adherent, Marjorie Taylor Greene, without any trace of irony last month.In South Dakota, where coronavirus is ravaging the state, with recent test positivity rates at over 40 percent and death counts spiking, the state's Republican governor and Trump sycophant Kristi Noem still refuses to order a mask mandate. After President-elect Joe Biden, responding to those escalating numbers in South Dakota and elsewhere, tweeted this week that "help is on the way," Noem clapped back on Twitter with her own message: a gif of Ronald Reagan and his famous quote, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help" — what he described in 1986 as "the nine most terrifying words in the English language."Invoking Reagan has long been a go-to move for GOP lawmakers, but Noem's use of his words to mock Biden while her citizens die reflects Trump's caustic influence on the party, not the Gipper's. With Republican politicians falling in line on Trump's every disastrous and deranged position, from coronavirus to fantastical election conspiracies, Reagan's cult of individual responsibility has given way to a personality cult centered on one individual.No matter that Trump has never taken responsibility for anything.More stories from theweek.com The reasonable case for a Trump self-pardon 5 absurdly funny cartoons about Trump's desperate fraud claims SNL mocks Giuliani's Michigan hearing in latest cold open

  • US Navy official says 'uneasy deterrence' reached with Iran

    The top U.S. Navy official in the Mideast said Sunday that America has reached an “uneasy deterrence” with Iran after months of regional attacks and seizures at sea, even as tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Vice Adm. Sam Paparo, who oversees the Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, struck an academic tone in comments to the annual Manama Dialogue hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

  • Turkey in weekend lockdown with coronavirus cases at record highs

    Turkey has entered its first full weekend lockdown since May as deaths from coronavirus more than doubled in less than three weeks to hit record highs, with daily infections now among the highest numbers recorded globally. The daily death toll https://tmsnrt.rs/35LkG8h rose to a record high of 196 on Saturday, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 14,705. Opposition politicians have expressed scepticism however about whether the official death toll reflects the true picture in the country of 83 million people.

  • Juan Guaido prepares to lose his seat in Venezuela - and his freedom

    When Juan Guaido raised his right hand and symbolically swore himself in as Venezuela’s interim president nearly two years ago, the tens of thousands watching on a main Caracas avenue rejoiced. As the country’s national anthem, “Glory to the Brave People,” then blasted through loudspeakers, some lifted their hands in a sign of victory, crying and overwhelmed with emotion. The trickle of news alerts in the following days advising that another country had recognised the 35 year-old as the country’s rightful leader seemed to confirm their certainty that Nicolas Maduro would soon be forced from the presidential palace. But two years on and Mr Maduro remains in power with complete control. And after parliamentary elections on Sunday, that claim will likely collapse entirely when he loses his seat and thus his claim as Venezuela's legitimate president. He may also lose his freedom. With Guaido’s term ending, so too will his parliamentary immunity. Mr Maduro may feel emboldened to detain the opposition leader or force him to flee the country.

  • Religious right eyes Biden warily after Trump's good favor

    Conservative evangelical Christians have proven some of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies during his presidency. As his administration draws to a close, some of those backers are approaching President-elect Joe Biden with skepticism, but not antagonism. Christian conservatives who stood by Trump through moments of crisis and success are hardly comfortable with his loss, and several have yet to fully acknowledge Biden as the winner of the election amid ongoing, unfounded fraud claims by the president.

  • Moscow rolls out Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to most exposed groups

    Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID-19 shot via 70 clinics on Saturday to the most exposed groups, marking Russia's first large-scale vaccination against the disease, the city's coronavirus task force said. The Russian-made vaccine will first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they run the highest risk of exposure to the disease. "You are working at an educational institution and have top-priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, free of charge," read a phone text message received by one Muscovite, an elementary school teacher, early on Saturday and seen by Reuters.

  • Surfer escapes shark attack in South Australia

    A surfer has managed to escape a shark attack on the coast of South Australia. The 29-year-old man is understood to have been bitten by a great white shark in Kangaroo Island waters on Sunday afternoon (local time). He was airlifted to hospital in Adelaide after emergency services were called to D’Estrees Bay about 2.20pm, with reports a surfer had been bitten. "The man managed to paddle back to shore and sought help from a member of the public who drove him toward Kingscote," South Australia Police said. "Paramedics met the car en route and transported the man the rest of the way to the hospital. He was then airlifted to Adelaide for treatment."

  • Trump presses Georgia governor to help overturn election

    President Trump fruitlessly pressured Georgia’s governor on Saturday to call a special legislative session aimed at overturning the presidential election results in that state.

  • Biden needs to take the Wayne Gretzky approach to foreign policy

    Opinion: Acting with conviction, not searching for compromise, has best chance of consensus on the most important international issues the US faces.

  • VIRUS TODAY: California faces closures; jobless cutoff looms

    Five San Francisco Bay Area counties have new stay-at-home orders that will take effect Sunday. — Jobless Americans face a bleak predicament if Congress fails to extend two unemployment programs that are set to expire the day after Christmas. — Doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up for a coronavirus vaccination in Moscow.