President Donald Trump was hospitalised Friday after learning he had the coronavirus and experiencing what aides called coughing, congestion and fever, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and destabilizing an already volatile campaign only 32 days before the election.
Trump was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after being given an experimental antibody treatment as the White House rushed to cope with a commander in chief infected by a virus that has killed more than 208,000 people in the United States. Officials said he would remain in the hospital for several days and cancelled upcoming campaign events.
The White House shrouded Trump’s condition in secrecy, saying little more than that he had “mild symptoms,” and officials characterized the hospital stay as a precautionary measure. But the normally voluble president remained almost entirely out of public view, skipped a telephone call with governors at the last minute and uncharacteristically stayed off Twitter nearly all day while people close to the situation said his fever and other symptoms worsened as the hours wore on.
“I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support,” Trump, wearing a suit and tie but appearing unusually pale and lethargic, said in an 18-second video taped just before getting on the Marine One helicopter and then posted on Twitter in his first public comment of the day. “I’m going to Walter Reed hospital. I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.”
Trump donned a black face mask and emerged from the White House shortly after 6 p.m., giving a perfunctory thumbs-up to reporters without stopping to speak as he walked unassisted to the helicopter. He was accompanied by Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, who was also wearing a mask.
The hospital trip was an abrupt change in plans after Vice President Mike Pence had told governors earlier in the day that the president would remain at the White House. One administration official said it would be better for Trump to leave on his own while he still could rather than risk getting sicker and having the image of being taken out of the White House with assistance. If he gets better, the official said, the Walter Reed stay will have been inconsequential politically.
Dr Sean Conley, the White House physician, said in a statement that Trump, while still at the White House, received a single 8-gram dose of polyclonal antibody combination drug while also taking zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, aspirin and famotidine, a heartburn medicine. But Walter Reed has equipment that would allow better monitoring of his condition and a quick response if he has trouble breathing or experiences other symptoms. By late Friday, Trump was said to be feeling better.
White House in shock
The president’s illness touched off a cascade of concern, suspicion, calculation and recrimination in response to a president hospitalized with a potentially life-threatening health condition for the first time in nearly 40 years. The White House was left in a state of shock while the capital pondered what-if scenarios in case the situation worsens.
The sudden development could have unforeseen consequences. It could on the one hand complicate Trump’s drive to confirm a new Supreme Court justice before the election Nov. 3 while giving new impetus to long-stalled talks for another round of coronavirus relief spending, according to officials.
The first lady, Melania Trump, and the president’s close adviser Hope Hicks were also infected, as was Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, who was last with Trump a week ago on Sept. 25. But the rest of Trump’s family tested negative, as did Pence, Meadows, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Attorney General William Barr and other senior officials who are regularly in proximity to the president.
‘Not matter of politics’
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the president’s Democratic challenger who was on a debate stage with Trump on Tuesday, tested negative Friday. Biden said he sent his prayers for a speedy recovery while also implicitly faulting the president for a casual and even reckless approach to the virus.
“This is not a matter of politics,” Biden said at a gathering in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while wearing a mask. “It is a bracing reminder for all of us that we must take this virus seriously. It is not going away. We must all do our part to be responsible. That means following the science, listening to experts.”
Saturday’s Rose Garden event?
No one could say for sure when the president was infected, but the White House medical unit was focused on his ceremony in the Rose Garden last Saturday where he announced his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, an event where many officials and guests mingled without masks and without keeping distance.
Several guests and reporters who were present or travelled with the president on Air Force One later that evening tested positive, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; the Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of University of Notre Dame; Kellyanne Conway, the president’s former counsellor; and Michael Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. Barrett had previously recovered from the coronavirus.
Even assuming Trump recovers quickly, it could be weeks before he is able to return to a full public life, calling into question the future of his already-faltering campaign for a second term. Trailing Biden by a significant margin in most polls, the president had been trying to change the subject from the pandemic, a goal that may now prove even more elusive.
The Trump campaign cancelled the president’s plans to attend rallies in Florida on Friday, Wisconsin on Saturday and Arizona on Monday and likewise scrapped in-person events featuring Trump’s family. Pence, however, will return to the campaign trail to pick up the burden of making the administration’s case to voters as many have begun casting ballots.
New York Times News Service
