Donald Trump sent 15 capital tweets in 30 minutes.
Washington, United States:
Donald Trump’s doctors were due to decide on Monday whether he was well enough to leave the hospital and continue Covid-19 treatment at the White House, as the president signaled his determination to return to the election campaign with a tweet early on. morning.
Conflicting official updates since Trump’s hospitalization on Friday have caused confusion over his health, but his chief of staff said the 74-year-old’s condition improved overnight, hoping he could be released during the day.
“We are always optimistic that based on his incredible progress and – and his strength in his fight against this Covid-19 disease, he will be released,” Mark Meadows told Fox News.
“But that decision won’t be made until later today.”
Trump’s diagnosis of Covid-19 has turned the race for the White House upside down within a month of election day – and takes a stern look at the president’s much-criticized handling of the pandemic that claimed 200,000 lives Americans.
Eager to present himself as responsible despite his illness, Trump sent out 15 closed-end tweets in 30 minutes, appealing to voters by claiming a record of success in his first term, including tax cuts and stock market highs, and protecting gun rights and religious freedoms.
“I vote for Donald Trump. My dad is a trade unionist and his 401K tripled under President Trump. Elector of the United States. @foxandfriends Thank you and remember that the stock market is about to break its all-time high. Next year will be the best ever. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE !!!!!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The tweet storm came after the president triggered an angry backlash with a protocol-breaking visit to supporters outside the hospital where he is being treated.
He was masked as he acted from inside his bulletproof vehicle on the short drive past Walter Reed Military Medical Center near Washington on Sunday night.
Trump, who has been reprimanded repeatedly for flouting public health advice and spreading disinformation about the pandemic, said in a video on Twitter just before his release that he had “learned a lot about Covid” by following a treatment.
But experts complained he had violated his own government’s guidelines requiring patients to self-isolate while in treatment and still shedding the virus – and also endangered Secret Service protection.
– ‘This is madness’ –
“Every person in the vehicle during this completely unnecessary presidential drive-by must be quarantined for 14 days,” said James Phillips, chief disaster medicine at George Washington University.
“They can get sick. They can die. For political theater. On Trump’s order to put their lives in danger for the theater. This is madness.”
White House spokesman Judd Deere said “appropriate” precautions were taken to protect Trump and his support staff, including protective gear.
The president was flown to Walter Reed with a high fever on Friday after his illness “progressed rapidly”, with a worrying drop in his oxygen levels, White House doctor Sean Conley said during a report. Sunday briefing.
Conley admitted he kept the fact that the President had been given extra oxygen was kept from the public, in an attempt to reflect an “optimistic attitude.”
He had given a positive account of Trump’s progress on Saturday, only for Chief of Staff Meadows to tell reporters immediately after Trump’s condition was “of great concern” and that he was “still not on track. clear towards full recovery “.
Facing a tough campaign ahead of the Nov. 3 vote against Democratic rival Joe Biden, Trump’s diagnosis and hospitalization has left him away from what he loves – campaigning in person.
Biden, who announced his latest negative test for the virus on Sunday, will begin the week with a trip Monday to the swing’s key state of Florida.
Recent polls give Biden a significant lead among registered voters.
Controversy is mounting over the possibility that Trump has exposed many more to Covid-19.
A schedule provided by his advisers and doctors suggests he met with more than 30 donors Thursday in Bedminster, New Jersey, even after learning aid Hope Hicks had the virus – and just hours before he did. report their own positive test.
Besides Trump and Hicks, many White House insiders and at least three Republican senators have contracted Covid-19, as well as First Lady Melania Trump, who has not exhibited severe symptoms.
Public health experts have expressed concern over the “White House group” that has been linked to the Sept. 26 celebration at the Rose Garden of the appointment of Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
