Trump says he's 'concerned' about Ebola after American tests positive in Africa

US President Donald Trump speaks during a healthcare affordability event in the South Court Auditorium of The White House in Washington, DC, on May 18, 2026. Kent Nishimura | AFP | President Donald Trump on Monday said he was concerned about Ebola after an American tested positive for it. "I'm concerned about everything, but certainly [I] am," Trump said when asked about Ebola during a White House event on his administration's consumer-drug website TrumpRx. "I think that it's been confined right now to Africa, and but it's something that has had a breakout," he said of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier Monday that one American tested positive for Ebola while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A day earlier, the World Health Organization declared that the spread of the Ebola-causing virus known as Bundibugyo, which is currently appearing in the DRC and Uganda, constitutes a global public health emergency. The WHO specified that it "does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency," as defined under International Health Regulations. In 2014, when an Ebola outbreak occurred during Barack Obama's presidency, Trump repeatedly criticized Obama on social media for how he handled the spread.