Trump Megadonors Contract Coronavirus, Joining Fellow Billionaire

LAKE FOREST, IL — Lake Forest billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein have contracted the coronavirus, they told employees at their Wisconsin-based shipping and packaging company Wednesday.

The prolific conservative political contributors have been outspoken opponents of COVID-19 restrictions, with Mrs. Uihlein arguing in the spring that the media is "overblowing" the threat from the coronavirus.

"After these long months, I thought we'd never get it. Well, Trump go[t] it," the 75-year-old president and CEO said in a message to her employees. "If we had not been around people with COVID, we would not have been tested. We would have been back at Uline."

Mrs. Uihlein's note did not specify whom she meant by "people with COVID." But just over a week before the revelation of her and her husband's coronavirus diagnoses, over 100 of President Donald Trump's closest supporters, Cabinet secretaries and their families attended an election night party at the White House. At least five attendees had tested positive as of Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon, following the publication of this article, Uihlein representatives provided a statement clarifying neither she nor her husband attended the Nov. 3 White House event.

"Liz was exposed to COVID-19 through a personal friend," it said. "Upon discovery of exposure, Liz was tested."

Uline is a privately held company founded in 1980 by Dick Uihlein, a descendant of the founder of Schlitz Brewing Co. and the son of a co-founder of an office supply company. In 2010, it relocated its headquarters from Waukegan across the border to Pleasant Prairie. The Uihleins have an estimated net worth of about $4 billion.

Some of Uline's roughly 7,000 employees have expressed concerns that too few office and call center employees have been permitted to work from home without a strong case for a medical condition.

Liz Uihlein explained Uline's COVID-19 policies in her note to employees. Those with symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested immediately, and people who have had close contact with a confirmed infection should wait five days and then get a test.

"Employees who test positive will be allowed to return to work 10 days from the date their test was collected, if you don't have any symptoms," she said. "If you don't have any symptoms, you are expected to continue working."

The Uihleins plan to return to the office Nov. 19, according to Liz Uihlein's message.

"Uline has instituted numerous changes to normal operating policies to respond to COVID-19 with health and safety in mind," company officials said in a statement. "As we are made aware of positive cases among Uline personnel, we continue to promptly notify others who may be exposed to the virus, so the proper protocols can be quickly put into place."

RELATED: Lake Forest Billionaires Oppose Coronavirus Shutdown Extension

In August — after Liz Uihlein and two senior Uline executives were reportedly exempted from Canadian COVID-19 quarantine rules after a flight on her private jet to the company's Ontario offices — police were called to investigate a report that the Americans were holding large, maskless meetings.

The brief visit led to controversy in Canada, with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporting that no government department with the power to grant an exemption to the province's 14-day quarantine requirement had admitted to doing so. Company representatives insisted the trip was legitimate.

RELATED: Fake Tweet Promoted By Pritzker-Funded 'Fair Tax' Committee

Last month, supporters of the Illinois constitutional amendment ballot measure that would have permitted a graduated income tax in Illinois purchased online advertising space to promote a fake Twitter account that falsely claimed to be Liz Uihlein.

That campaign committee was funded almost entirely by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and run by his former deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, who has declined to comment or explain how the fake post got promoted. A screenshot of the post remained on the Vote Yes For Fairness Facebook page as of Wednesday, a month after it was revealed to be fraudulent.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ compilation of campaign finance data, the Uihleins contributed over $65 million to political candidates and committees in the 2020 federal election cycle, trailing two billionaire candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, and a Las Vegas Republican casino magnate and his wife, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who spent over $180 million on the election.