President Donald Trump was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center early Friday evening less than 24 hours after news broke of his Covid-19 diagnosis, plunging the country into a deepening crisis as the circle of current and former aides to the President testing positive rapidly widened.

By early Saturday, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and the President's campaign manager Bill Stepien had both tested positive, which followed the positive diagnoses of two US senators who had attended Trump's Supreme Court nomination announcement last weekend, and Trump senior adviser Hope Hicks on Thursday.

It was a remarkably fast escalation of the virus' threat -- which the President has long downplayed -- from an infection that caused him mild symptoms, to a fever to then being airlifted to the hospital, all while spreading quickly throughout the government and his campaign.

Shortly before midnight, the President's physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley finally gave an update on the President's condition, saying in a memo that the President is "doing very well" and has not required any supplemental oxygen, but that doctors have initiated the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been shown to shorten recovery time for some coronavirus patients.

[...] Melania Trump remained at the White House with what the White House physician described as a mild cough and a headache.

But her husband's age, his sex and the fact that he is clinically obese put him at greater risk of complications from the virus. It was unclear exactly when the couple was tested and how long they could have been contagious. [...]

A pattern of dismissing the virus

The President not only traveled earlier in the week to the first presidential debate with Biden, who tested negative on Friday, but he also attended several campaign rallies over the past week.

[...] There are increasingly troubling signs from the White House events last Saturday when Trump and the first lady hosted a sizable crowd in the Rose Garden as the President announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Guests did not socially distance and very few wore masks. At least seven people, including the President and first lady, have tested positive. University of Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins, Conway and Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who were seated relatively close to each other, tested positive. [...]

A longstanding credibility gap

The lack of information about the severity of Trump's illness Friday night was complicated by the fact that the President and his allies have downplayed the dangers of Covid-19 ever since the virus reached the US.

Trump and members of his administration already faced a major credibility gap because of their extensive history of putting out false or misleading information about a variety of topics over the past four years, including the severity of the pandemic and the risks to public health. [...]

An inevitable outcome

The President's cavalier attitude toward the virus, his decision to keep traveling and holding large rallies, and the fact that he discouraged mask use by most Americans until late this summer made his eventual diagnosis all but inevitable -- given how he has practiced behaviors that his own coronavirus task force has discouraged to the public.

As recently as this week's presidential debate in Ohio, Trump mocked Biden for wearing a mask. In prerecorded remarks for Thursday night's Al Smith charity dinner, the President proclaimed that the "end of the pandemic is in sight."

[...] And as he tries to win reelection, Trump has insisted, in contradiction to the statistics and statements of the nation's top infectious disease experts, that the US is rounding the corner in its fight against Covid-19, stating that it is time for Americans to get back to work and children back to school. He has falsely argued that Biden wants to shut down the country instead of opening it back up, citing that as a reason why Americans should reelect him.