Real test for Trump over next few days
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has told Americans from his hospital room that the next few days will be the ‘‘real test’’ of his treatment for Covid19, after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about his condition.
In a fourminute video posted on Twitter from his suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre yesterday, a tiredlooking Trump said he was feeling ‘‘much better’’.
‘‘Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.’’
The remarks came hours after differing assessments of his health from administration officials left it unclear how ill the President had become since he tested positive for Covid19 on Friday.
A White House team of doctors said yesterday his condition was improving and he was already talking about returning to the White House. One doctor said Trump told them ‘‘I feel like I could walk out of here today’’.
Within minutes, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gave reporters a less rosy assessment, telling them ‘‘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. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery’’.
Meadows altered his tone hours later, saying Trump was doing ‘‘very well’’ and ‘‘doctors are very pleased with his vital signs’’.
He did not clarify the discrepancy in his comments. A Trump adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity said the President was not happy to learn of
Meadows’ initial remarks.
Another source who was briefed on Trump’s condition said the President was given supplemental oxygen before he went to the hospital. The decision to hospitalise him came after he had experienced difficulty breathing and his oxygen level dropped.
White House doctor Sean P. Conley said Trump had not had trouble breathing, and was not given oxygen at Walter Reed.
‘‘The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the President has made,’’ Conley said.
He declined to give a timetable for Trump’s possible release from the hospital, and later had to issue a statement saying he misspoke after appearing to suggest Trump had been diagnosed as early as Thursday.
Such a timeline would mean Trump held a rally and fundraiser in Minnesota on Thursday, and an intimate fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday while knowing he was sick.
The White House quickly tried to walk back the doctor’s comments, claiming Trump was diagnosed on Thursday evening.
Conley said Trump had received the first two doses of a fiveday course of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc that has been shown to shorten hospital stays.
He is also taking an experimental treatment, Regeneron’s REGNCOV2, as well as zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin, Conley has said.
Neither Remdesivir nor REGNCOV2 have completed largescale randomised trials, UK scientists say.
With Trump off the campaign trail indefinitely, his campaign announced ‘‘Operation MAGA,’’ based on his slogan ‘‘Make America Great Again’’, in which highprofile allies including Vicepresident Mike Pence and Trump’s elder sons, Donald jun and Eric, will take over inperson campaigning this week.
Pence, who tested negative on Saturday, is scheduled to debate Democratic vicepresidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday.
Biden, who largely avoided direct criticism of Trump during a campaign trip to Michigan on Saturday, took a more aggressive tone yesterday while speaking to a transit workers’ union, even as he wished the President well.
‘‘I’m in a little bit of a spot here, because I don’t want to be attacking the President and the First Lady now,’’ Biden said, adding he hoped the Trumps made a full recovery.
But he quickly pivoted to Trump’s response to the pandemic, calling it ‘‘unconscionable’’ and blasting Trump’s comment this summer that ‘‘it is what it is’’ when asked about the death toll.
‘‘I find this one of the most despicable things that I’ve encountered in my whole career,’’ he said.
Biden, who tested negative on Saturday, said he would next be tested today. His campaign would begin releasing the results of each test, a spokesman said.
Several other prominent Republicans have also tested positive since Trump’s announcement, including Republican senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson, former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House aide Nick Luna and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.