Coronavirus: White House staff ordered to wear masks but Trump won’t as he ‘doesn’t feel vulnerable’

President has previously said wearing a mask in the Oval Office would not look good

Donald Trump has said he doesn’t feel vulnerable enough to the coronavirus to wear a face mask, even as an official memo demands that the entire White House staff cover up.

At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Trump – who has yet to be seen wearing a mask in public – was asked by a reporter why the staff were required to wear face masks but he has not yet covered his face.

“Because we’re running a country, we want to keep our country running, so we have a lot of people coming in and out,” he said. “Many of those people, most people are tested depending on what portion of the Oval Office area they’re going in, everybody coming into the president’s office gets tested. And I felt no vulnerability whatsoever, John.”

Previous reports have said Mr Trump fears he would look “ridiculous” in a mask, providing footage for Democratic attack ads and hurting his chances of re-election. He also fears looking overly preoccupied with health as opposed to the economy, which he hopes will recover in time for him to make it his main campaign platform.

Back in early April, Mr Trump told another briefing that wearing a mask would be unnecessary and unbecoming for him as president.

“I just don’t want to wear one myself. It’s a recommendation, they recommend it. I’m feeling good. I just don’t want to be doing – somehow sitting in the Oval Office … I think that wearing a face mask as a great – presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens – I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t.”

However, two members of administration staff, including a valet to the president, have tested positive for the virus in the last week, adding to the pressure on the White House to increase health precautions.

One reporter pointed out that many Americans will not feel safe returning to their own workplaces when the White House, “the most secure workplace in the country”, is itself not impervious to the spread of the infection; Mr Trump said that “one person” had tested positive and had gone into quarantine along with three others. “That is not exactly not controlling it,” he pointed out.

Asked by another reporter why he hadn’t required everyone at the White House to wear masks before now, Mr Trump replied: “Well if they’re a certain distance from me, or if they’re a certain distance from each other they do.

“In the case of me, I’m not close to anybody, I’d like to be close to these two gentlemen, they’re hard working, great men, but they just said, frankly, let’s keep it this way. So obviously in my case I’m very far away from everyone.

“But if you look at all of those people over there,” he said, pointing to a line of people to his left, “every one of them from what I see, these are White House staffers, they’re White House representatives, they’re White House executives and just about everybody has a mask on.

“We’ve had – just about everybody I’ve seen today has worn a mask.”

The reporter followed up, asking if it was he who required staffers to cover their faces. Mr Trump confirmed that it was.