Trump to host event just days after diagnosis
Hundreds expected at Saturday event
President Donald Trump on Saturday plans to host his first in-person event at the White House since being hospitalized with COVID-19, two White House officials said, amid questions about the stage of his recovery.
The South Lawn event is expected to include a couple hundred guests, said a person familiar with the matter. The president will address the crowd from a distance, on the Blue Room balcony.
Trump will remain at the White House this weekend, people familiar with the matter said, after saying Thursday that he wanted to hold rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania on Saturday and Sunday. Trump won't travel until Monday at the earliest, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump has been eager to return to the campaign trail as Democratic nominee Joe Biden widens his lead just weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Trump has released recorded video messages saying he's well, and his physician said in a statement Wednesday that the president had been free of symptoms for the previous 24 hours.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump “will be clear to go” on Saturday, when “he wants to talk to the American people.” There are medical tests underway to ensure he doesn't transmit the virus when he returns to the campaign trail, she said on Fox News, adding that she'd conferred with White House doctor Sean Conley.
The Saturday event will be focused on law and order, according to the White House official.
Trump is filling the void of not hitting the campaign trail by doing a series of lengthy interviews with conservative talk shows. He spent two hours in a radio interview with Rush Limbaugh on Friday afternoon.
The president was also to appear on conservative radio host Mark Levin's show and later Tucker Carlson's Fox News television show.
Trump s ounded c ongested, but didn't clear his throat or otherwise exhibit any trouble breathing during the course of his interview with Limbaugh. He acknowledged that he'd dealt with some “lingering” effects following his bout with the virus. He said his voice “is now perfect.”
Four staff members at the White House residence have tested positive for the coronavirus, linked to an outbreak at the building nearly three weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Those infected include three members of the housekeeping staff and an assistant to the chief usher, Timothy Harleth.
The president said he'd met with 11 doctors at the White House earlier on Friday, and was told he could have faced dire circumstances from the highly contagious disease that's killed more than 213,000 Americans. The coronavirus is particularly lethal for the elderly and overweight.
“I said, `How bad was I?'” Trump, 74, said. “They said you could have been very bad. You were going into a very bad phase.” He added: “This looks like it was going to be a big deal.”
It wasn't immediately cl ear what precautions would be taken on Saturday to protect White House guests from the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease expert, said that a gathering in the White House Rose Garden last month was a “super-spreader event” for the novel coronavirus.
Trump held a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on Sept. 26 to honour Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. While the White House had a testing regime in place to screen for virus cases, few guests wore masks and attendees mingled and sat close to one another both indoors and outdoors.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI SAID THAT A GATHERING IN THE WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN LAST MONTH WAS A `SUPERSPREADER EVENT.'