Former President Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania, silently received coronavirus vaccines in January before leaving the White House, an adviser said on Monday.
The news came a day after Trump appeared at the CPAC political conference in Orlando, Florida, where he first encouraged people to get vaccinated.
“Everyone should try,” Trump said during the speech. When the Times asked an aide to the former president if he had received his, the answer was that he had received it, in particular, a month earlier.
Trump’s secret approach came when several of his supporters expressed resistance to the vaccine and other officials tried to set an example by taking the injection in public.
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Vice President Mike Pence received vaccines in front of television cameras.
Trump’s concern about the vaccine is usually whether he will receive credit for his development while he was president. He never publicly encouraged people to do so while he was in office; the first vaccines were approved shortly after election day.
The consultant did not say whether Trump received the first and second vaccines in January or whether the second was at another time.
Mr. and Mrs. Trump were infected with the coronavirus in the fall, and the former president was hospitalized with a serious case.