Trump concerned about Ebola after American tests positive in Africa
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a healthcare affordability event at the Southern Court Auditorium of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 18, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Monday he was concerned about Ebola after an American tested positive.
“I’m interested in everything, but definitely [I] “I do,” Trump said when asked about Ebola during a White House event on TrumpRx, his administration’s consumer medicine website.
“I think it’s limited to Africa right now, but it’s become an epidemic,” he said of the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced early Monday that an American had tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A day ago World Health Organization declared We noted that the spread of the virus that causes Ebola, known as Bundibugyo and currently seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, constitutes a global public health emergency.
WHO said it “does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency” as defined under the International Health Regulations.
When the Ebola epidemic broke out during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2014, Trump has been criticized many times Obama shared on social media how he handled the spread.
CDC’s Ebola response incident manager, Dr. Satish Pillai told reporters that the American who tested positive developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late on Sunday.
“We had a full interagency response to the pandemic,” Heidi Overton, a physician who was named to Trump’s Domestic Policy Council in 2025, said at an event at the White House on Monday afternoon.
Overton confirmed that one American was symptomatic and said that person “will be removed from that area and taken to Germany along with six other high-risk contacts.”
“There are currently no cases of Ebola in the United States. We want to keep it that way, and we are doing everything we can to support Americans in the region,” he added.
