Donald Trump acknowledged today that he has been tested for the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, but says he does not yet know the results. He told reporters at the White House that he took his temperature this morning and it was “totally normal.” At the Conservative Political Action Conference and then at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump stood close to people known to be infected with the coronavirus. Given the contagiousness of the virus, it’s reasonable to worry that the president himself may now be infected. Yet the White House for days insisted that the president did not need to be tested. At almost midnight last night, the White House blasted to reporters a letter from Trump’s doctor repeating the claim that no test was called for. In the president’s reversal today, he made it seem as if the idea had only just occurred to him.

He said he was finally prompted to seek testing after reporters asked him during a press conference yesterday whether he would do so—a press conference in which he was surrounded by other people. By waiting this long to get tested, Trump engaged in gross dereliction of duty. Not only might the president fall gravely ill himself, but he might—and quite possibly already has—spread the illness to others. He has engaged in risky behaviors long after he should have stopped: shaking hands, sharing microphones, gathering crowds, standing very close to people of advanced age.