Trump says he’ll leave hospital, ‘don’t be afraid of COVID’ as U.S. poised to record 210,000th death: live updates
President Trump tweeted Monday that he will leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at 6:30 p.m. ET after being in the hospital since Friday.
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” Trump tweeted. “We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
His comments came as the U.S. neared 210,000 deaths from COVID-19 and the president was administered drugs that are not available to many other Americans, including Regeneron, which has not been approved by the FDA, as well as remdesivir and dexamethasone. Public health officials’ recommendations that people wear masks, distance at least six feet and frequently wash hands remain unchanged.
Trump made the announcement just before White House physicians were due to deliver a briefing on the president’s condition outside the hospital.
☕ The latest:
- At least 18 are positive, according to our running list
- The White House has sent mixed signals about his condition and the timeline of events leading up to his transfer to the hospital.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing forward on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court even after two of its GOP members tested positive.
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., debated Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison on Saturday. Here are seven takeaways from the debate.
📊 What the polls are saying: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s national lead over President Donald Trump widened after last week’s chaotic first debate in Cleveland. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted after the debate showed 53% of voters backed Biden, compared to 39% who are supporting Trump. Another poll released Sunday also showed Biden widening his lead over Trump. The Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after Trump contracted COVID-1 found Biden led Trump 51%-41%, a 1-point jump from a Sept. 30 poll.
📆 29 days until Election Day, two days until the vice presidential debate, 107 days until Inauguration Day, 88 days left in 2020.
🙋Got questions about Trump and COVID? Ask us. You can use this form to submit your own.
🗳️ Voting: See USA TODAY’s Voter Guide for information on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues.
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Trump to return to White House Monday
Trump said he will return to the White House on Monday, three days after he was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center for COVID-19.
Navy Commander and White House physician Sean Conley told reporters Sunday Trump could be discharged as soon as Monday if his condition continued to improve.
White House doctors revealed Sunday that the president had been given supplemental oxygen and the steroid dexamethasone after his blood oxygen level – a key health marker in COVID-19 cases – dropped twice since Friday. Trump is also receiving a five-day course of the antiviral drug remdesivir and received an infusion of an experimental antibody cocktail before he left for the hospital Friday. Infectious disease experts said the details he offered about the president’s treatment were indicative of a patient battling a serious case of the disease brought on by the coronavirus.
Although the White House has an excellent medical unit, it’s known that people with severe COVID-19 can deteriorate quickly — within a half an hour to an hour, said Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
“It’s suboptimal,” he said. “You want to be 50 feet from an ICU, not a helicopter ride away.”
Conley said he previously did not disclose that the president received supplemental oxygen because he wanted to reflect the “upbeat attitude of the president,” raising questions about the mixed messages the White House has sent about the president’s condition throughout the weekend.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tests positive for COVID-19
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for COVID-19, she announced on Twitter Monday.
“After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms,” she said in a statement.
McEnany said she will go into quarantine and work remotely although she should have already been quarantining per CDC recommendations which state that a person who has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days from last exposure.
Two other White House press officials have since announced that they have COVID-19.
– Sean Rossman
Biden says public transit riders would be required to wear masks if he were president.
Another clash between the Trump administration and Democratic nominee Joe Biden erupted over the weekend over whether passengers on public transit should be required to wear masks.
The Trump administration declined to require passengers masks while Biden said if he is elected, the Transportation Department would require passengers on buses, trains and planes to wear masks.
“I promise you: my Department of Transportation will insist on it,” Biden told the Amalgamated Transit Union on Saturday.
His comments came a day after the Transportation Department rejected a July 27 petition from the Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO for a federal regulation to require passengers on public transportation to wear masks.
Larry Willis, the union president, argued the requirement would be a small imposition on passengers in exchange for protecting workers such as flight attendants and bus drivers who come in close contact with passengers.
But Steven Bradbury, the Transportation Department’s general counsel, ruled that a regulation wasn’t necessary because state, local and private transportation agencies could adopt their own mask policies.
“These requirements are in place across all modes of transportation – from planes and buses to trains and ferries,” Bradbury wrote in a two-page decision. “The Department also embraces the notion that there should be no more regulations than necessary.”
– Bart Jansen
Melania Trump will ‘continue to rest’ at the White House
First lady Melania Trump, while isolating due to testing positive for COVID-19, hasn’t left and won’t leave the White House to visit the president in the hospital.
On Monday, she tweeted a new status report, saying, “I am feeling good and will continue to rest at home.”
“My family is grateful for all of the prayers support! I am feeling good will continue to rest at home. Thank you to medical staff caretakers everywhere, my continued prayers for those who are ill or have a family member impacted by the virus,” her post on her official Twitter account read.
NBC News on Sunday and CNN on Monday reported that an unnamed White House official confirmed that the first lady would not break isolation to visit her husband due to concern she would expose the Secret Service agents who would drive her there, and the medical staff who would greet her.
– Maria Puente
First lady:Melania Trump will ‘continue to rest’ at White House, thankful for ‘prayers support’
Mike Pence, Karen Pence test negative for COVID-19
Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence both tested negative Monday for COVID-19, an administration official said.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the virus last week. The president has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since Friday for treatment.
The Pences are scheduled to leave Washington Monday afternoon for Salt Lake City, the site of the vice presidential debate Wednesday.
– David Jackson and Sean Rossman
Former Secret Service officials decry Trump’s SUV ride at Walter Reed
After President Donald Trump took a spin around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in an SUV on Sunday, many decried the decision to risk exposing the Secret Service agents in the vehicle with him to COVID-19.
While agents make safety recommendations that generally are accepted, the bottom line is that the president makes final the call.
“Ultimately, our job is not to say ‘no,’ it is to protect,” Patricia Beckford Acheson, who worked on then-Vice President George H.W. Bush’s protective detail in the early 1980s, told USA TODAY.
Former Secret Service Director W. Ralph Basham said the security and health challenge posed by the coronavirus is unprecedented.
“We are in uncharted waters,” said Basham. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.”
– John Bacon and Kevin Johnson
Trump’s SUV ride:If the president engages in risky behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, can the Secret Service – or anyone – stop him?
Trump begins Monday with barrage of tweets from the hospital
President Donald Trump spent the early hours of Monday unleashing a barrage of tweets – most of them in all caps – promoting his reelection bid.
“MASSIVE REGULATION CUTS. VOTE!” the president wrote in one of the tweets from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he has been battling a case of COVID-19 since Friday.
In more than 15 tweets before 7:15 a.m. EST, Trump stated various campaign slogans and policy platforms, often ending the messages with “VOTE!”
Political opponents pushed back Trump’s hospital-based tweet storm.
“IF YOU WANT A PRESIDENT WHO ACTUALLY PAYS THEIR TAXES VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN,” tweeted Joe Lockhart, a press secretary for President Bill Clinton, tweeted.
– David Jackson