I’ll be back soon, assures Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump told Americans he was faring well and pledged to return to the campaign trail in a video message from the military hospital where he is being treated.

The four-minute broadcast came after a day of mixed messaging from the White House about Mr Trump’s health and when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now,” Mr Trump said at the Walter Reed Medical Centre.

“We’re working hard to get me all the way back.

“I have to be back because we still have to make America great.

“I’ll be back, I think I’ll be back soon and I look forward to finishing up the campaign the way we started off.”

Mr Trump said he had decided to go to hospital on Friday, local time, rather than be quarantined in the White House.

“I had to be out front. This is the United States, this is America,” he said.

“This was something that’s happened and it’s happened to people all over the world,” he said of his illness.

Mr Trump was reported to have asked aides “am I going out like Stan Chera?” in reference to a friend who died in April after contracting the coronavirus.

Mr Trump was also said to have needed oxygen before he was flown from the White House.

Those reports came after his medical team said he was “doing great” and walking around his hospital wing in an official update that raised more questions about his diagnosis than it answered.

White House physician Sean Conley said he would not comment on the “specifics” of how high Mr Trump’s fever had gone and whether or not he had needed sup

President Trump provides a video update on his health and (below) his supporters gather outside his hospital.

plemental oxygen.

“He’s not on oxygen right now,” Dr Conley said.

Mr Trump has begun treatment with the antiviral drug remdesivir and has continued working in the White House wing of Walter Reed Hospital, according to the multidisciplinary team treating him.

“We remain cautiously optimistic, but he’s doing great,” Dr Conley said.

But as the briefing from nine doctors was taking place outside the military hospital, a senior source commented to the official “pool” of White House reporters that Mr Trump’s vital signs were “concerning”.

“The President’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,” said the source, who was later revealed to be White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”

In his video message, Mr

Trump said: “I’m starting to feel good. You don’t know, over the period of the next few days, I guess, that’s the real test so I’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.”

The doctors also presented conflicting timelines that

threw into question how long the Trumps had known they were ill and continued to campaign in public.

While Dr Conley said Mr Trump had been diagnosed 72 hours earlier, he was speaking just 35 hours after the tweet with which Mr Trump had announced his illness to the world.

Afterwards, Dr Conley said he was mistaken, that the official timeline offered by the Trump administration was correct and that the reference to “72 hours” was down to it being the morning of “day three”, given Mr Trump was tested on Thursday night, local time.

Dr Conley said the First Lady, Melania Trump, was also faring well.