Trump says he hasn’t recently seen national security adviser that tested positive for Covid-19

President Trump said he hasn’t seen national security adviser Robert O’Brien recently, and he doesn’t know when his national security adviser first tested positive for Covid-19.

“I haven’t seen him lately,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for North Carolina Monday afternoon. “I have not seen him, I’m calling him later,” he added.

Trump responded “I don’t know” when asked by a reported when O’Brien first tested positive.

Some background: As CNN previously reported, O’Brien’s diagnosis marks the highest-ranking Trump administration official known to have tested positive. It’s unclear when O’Brien last met with Trump.

Their last public appearance together was over two weeks ago during a visit to US Southern Command in Miami on July 10. 

O’Brien is experiencing “mild symptoms” and is “self-isolating and working from a secure location off site,” according to an unnamed statement to the press from the White House.

That statement confirmed O’Brien’s test results to reporters before his staff was formally informed. Several National Security Council staffers told CNN that they weren’t informed that O’Brien tested positive and learned of the news from media reports.

O’Brien, one of Trump’s top aides, recently returned from Europe, where he and his top deputy met with officials from the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

A senior administration official told CNN that O’Brien has been working from home since last week. A source familiar said O’Brien was last in the office last Thursday, when he abruptly left the White House. 

The White House statement said there is “no risk of exposure to the President or the Vice President.”