Donald and Melania Trump ‘both got Covid shot before leaving the White House’

Ex-president tried to claim full credit for vaccine success in CPAC speech

Donald and Melania Trump both received the Covid vaccine before leaving the White House in January, said an adviser.

The news emerged the day after the ex-president encouraged “everybody” to get vaccinated during his speech to a conservative conference.

“We took care of a lot of people — including, I guess, on 21 December, we took care of Joe Biden, because he got his shot, he got his vaccine,” said Mr Trump at CPAC.

“So everybody, go get your shot.”

The adviser for the ex-president told the New York Times that Mr Trump had received the vaccine, but it is not known when or which shot he got.

Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said last December that Mr Trump was waiting to get his vaccination jab because of a “medical reason.”

The former president received an experimental antibody treatment after contracting Covid-19 in October, which forced him to spend three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

White Republicans remain the most hesitant demographic in the US to take the vaccine, according to a Civiqs poll.

During his CPAC speech Mr Trump tried to claim full credit for the vaccine rollout in the US under Joe Biden and said that Republicans needed to receive all the praise.

More than 28.6 million people have been diagnosed with the virus and 514,000 people have died during the pandemic.

Around 3.9 million doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine are expected to be distributed this week after it became the third vaccine to be approved for emergency use.