Trump says he’s getting better but next two days are critical

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President Donald Trump vowed that he was starting to feel better as he delivered an update on his coronavirus diagnosis from Walter Reed military hospital on Saturday night. 

‘I’m starting to feel good’ the president said in a video posted to Twitter as he promised that he was fighting the virus for COVID-19 patients ‘all over the world’. 

Trump, 74, added that the treatments he is receiving are ‘miracles from God’ as he said that First Lady Melania Trump’s symptoms were not as severe as his own. 

‘We’re both doing well,’ Trump said in the four-minute Twitter video. 

‘Melania is really handling it very nicely. As you’ve probably read, she’s slightly younger than me, just a little tiny bit,’ he said of his 50-year-old wife. 

‘And therefore, we know the disease, we know the situation with age versus younger people and Melania is handling it statistically like it’s supposed to be handled and that makes me very happy, and it makes the country very happy, but I’m also doing well and I think we’re gonna have a very good result again.’  

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‘I came here, I wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me back. I have to get all the way back because we still have to make America great again,’ Trump said at the start of the video. 

‘We’ve been so proud of it but this was something that’s happened and it was something that happened to millions of people all over the world and I’ve been fighting for them, not just in the US, I’m fighting for them all over the world.’

The president added that people ‘criticize me’ for boasting about cures but that the therapeutics he’s taking are ‘like they’re miracles coming down from God so I just want to tell you that I’m starting to feel good’.

‘We’re going to beat the coronavirus or whatever you want to call it and we’re going to beat it soundly,’ he added. 

‘I don’t know the next period of a few days, I guess. that’s the real test so we’ll be seeing what happened over those next couple of days.’ 

On Saturday night, Trump’s personal physician Sean Conley delivered an update on the president’s condition in which he said that he had made ‘substantial progress since diagnosis’. 

‘This evening he completed his second dose of remdesivir without complication. He remains fever-free and off supplemental oxygen with a saturation level between 96% and 98% all day,’ Conley wrote. 

‘He spent most of the afternoon conducting business, and has been up and moving about the medical suite without difficulty. While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic,’ he continued. 

‘The plan for tomorrow is to continue observation in between doses of remdesivir, closely monitoring his clinical status while fully supporting his conduct of Presidential duties.’

Several hours later, Deputy White House Press Secretary Judd Deere posted a picture showing Trump working into the night from the hospital.  

The update came after news that Trump allegedly asked aides if he was going to die before he was transported to the hospital on Friday. 

Vanity Fair correspondent Gabriel Sherman quoted Republicans familiar with the situation as saying that Trump repeatedly asked: ‘Am I going out like Stan Chera? Am I?’

Chera, a longtime friend and supporter of Trump, died aged 77 from coronavirus in April in New York City.  

Sherman’s report came as confusion erupted over Trump’s condition after the president’s doctors said he is doing ‘very well’ while White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claimed his vitals are ‘very concerning’.  

Earlier on Saturday, Conley had also said that the medical team were ‘optimistic’.  

‘This morning, the president is doing very well. The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made. He’s been fever free for 24 hours and we are cautiously optimistic,’ Conley said, adding that Trump has been working and walking in his hospital suite.  

Conley’s depiction was far more hopeful than one put forward by Meadows, who spoke to Bloomberg Business pooler Cheryl Bolen on background immediately after the briefing ended. 

‘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 told Bolen, who passed that information along to the press pool.   

The briefing raised more questions than answers as Conley declined to say what temperature the president had when he had a fever, whether he was on oxygen and when he last tested negative for COVID. 

Conley told reporters the team was 72 hours into Trump’s diagnosis. But that would put the timeline at the president testing positive Wednesday morning. Trump tweeted shortly before 1 am on Friday he had tested positive. On Thursday he flew to his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, for a fundraiser with about 100 people.

‘Just 72 hours into the diagnosis now, the first week of COVID, in a particular day seven to day 10, are most critical in determining the likely course of this illness. At this time the team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made. Thursday he had a mild cough with nasal congestion and fatigue all of which are now resolving and improving,’ Conley said. 

Dr Shaun Dooley, a critical care physician, also spoke at the briefing and said Trump’s heart, liver and kidney functions are being monitored and are currently in good condition. 

‘He’s in exceptionally good spirits,’ Dooley said of the president. ‘In fact, as we were completing our multidisciplinary round this morning, the quote he left us with is “I feel like I could walk out of here today” and that was a very encouraging comment from the president.’  

Multiple sources said that Trump was administered oxygen while at the White House on Friday, before he checked into the hospital. 

Trump is currently undergoing a range of treatments including a polyclonal antibody cocktail made by Regeneron that is not available to the public, remdesivir – an ebola drug that has already been shown to work against the virus – and vitamin D. He is also taking zinc, vitamin D, famotidine (the generic name for Pepcid AC), melatonin and daily aspirin. 

The president took to Twitter shortly after the briefing ended, writing: ‘Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!!Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well!’  

Asked about the discrepancy with Trump’s testing timeline, Conley said Thursday night was when the team got a PCR confirmation of positive. It’s unclear what kind of COVID tests the president receives on a daily basis. Trump and those around him are regularly tested.

‘So Thursday afternoon following, following the news of a close contact is when we repeated testing and given kind of clinical indication, a little bit more concern and that’s when — late that night we got the PRC confirmation,’ Conley said.

But a White House official clarified later that Conley meant it’s day three of the president’s diagnosis, not 72 hours and clarified the timing of medication administered to Trump. 

‘The doctor meant it’s day three, not yet 72 hours,’ the official told DailyMail.com. ‘Diagnosis was made Thursday night, Regeneron administered later that night (2 days ago), not 48 hours ago.’

Dr Brian Garabaldi told reporters at the briefing: ‘About 48 hours ago the president received a special antibody therapy directed at the coronavirus.’ 

Conley issued a statement clarifying his own remarks after the briefing, writing: ‘This morning while summarizing the President’s health, I incorrectly used the term “seventy two hours” instead of “day three” and “forty eight hours” instead of “day two” with regards to his diagnosis and the administration of the polyclonal antibody therapy. 

‘The President was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on the evening of Thursday, October 1st and had received Regeron’s antibody cocktail on Friday, October 2nd.’ 

White House senior staff and people meeting with the president receive the Abbott test, a 15 minute rapid response test that is said to be about 50 per cent accurate. The PCR test that Conley referred to has a more accurate response rate.

Conley said it was ‘likely’ President Trump will be in the hospital five days.

But the confusion raises more questions particularly after reports White House officials wanted to keep it a secret that Trump’s close aide, Hope Hicks, tested positive for COVID on Thursday after not feeling well Wednesday night, when she was with President Trump in Minnesota for a campaign rally.

Trump spoke for only 45 minutes at that rally – unusually short for him as he tends to speak for over an hour – and was reported to have fallen asleep on the Air Force One during the trip back to Washington, which is also unusual for the president.

Conley said the plan was to treat Trump with a five-day course of remdesivir, a broad-spectrum anti-viral medication that has been used to treat Ebola and is being tested for possible use against the coronavirus.

‘It’s important to note that the president has been fever-free for over 24 hours,’ Conley said, although he declined to say what the president’s temperature had been.

He also caused confusion as to whether the president was ever on supplemental oxygen. The coronavirus affects a person’s breathing and some patients end up on ventilators.

‘He’s not needed any this morning today at all,’ he said. 

Two people close to the White House told the New York Times in separate interviews that Trump had trouble breathing on Friday and doctors put him on supplemental oxygen after his oxygen level dropped while he was still at the White House.   

Trump took to Twitter on Friday night to share an upbeat message about his condition amid reports that he had been hospitalized because he was having ‘trouble breathing’. 

‘Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!’ Trump tweeted after a CNN report quoted an unnamed presidential adviser claiming that there is ‘reason for concern’ about his condition. 

‘This is serious,’ the source told CNN, stating that Trump was ‘very tired, very fatigued’ and claimed that his condition was much more severe than Melania’s. 

They confirmed he is ‘fatigued’, but that his condition is not deteriorating and the public should not be alarmed.  

The president gave a ‘thumbs up’ as he walked from the White House to Marine One to be airlifted to hospital on Friday evening. He waved to reporters on the South Lawn but didn’t speak. 

Before traveling to hospital, Trump had released an 18 second video message to the nation, saying he was being hospitalized but ‘I think I’m doing very well.’

‘We’re going to make sure that things work out,’ he said, adding that the first lady was also ‘doing very well’.

With just a month to go until the election, it also emerged that: 

• Eleven people involved in the set-up and planning of Tuesday night’s presidential debate have now tested positive for COVID-19
• Debate moderator Chris Wallace revealed that Donald Trump and his family arrived to the debate too late to take a COVID test
• Wallace also said that debate organizers ‘were not especially happy that the presidential party was not wearing masks’ and ‘there seems to have been a disregard for the risks of this virus’  
• Nine people who attended Amy Coney Barrett’s ceremonial nomination to the Supreme Court last Saturday tested positive for COVID-19, giving rise to fears that it was a ‘super-spreader event’ 
• Among the top Trump officials who have tested positive are: Former presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, top aide Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel 
•  Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump have expressed their well-wishes for their father
• New Jersey contact tracers are struggling to work out the names of all of the people who were present at a fundraiser the president attended on Thursday just hours before he was diagnosed with the virus
• Trump will work from the Presidential suite at Walter Reed that is specially outfitted with protective devices and communications gear
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel sent the chamber home for a three-week recess after three Republican senators – Thom Tillis, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson – tested positive for the virus 

The White House said Trump was being admitted to Walter Reed for tests ‘out of an abundance of caution’ after he developed a fever, congestion and a cough. 

He is expected to remain in hospital for ‘a few days’ where he will continue working, they added. 

White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah confirmed that Trump had not transferred power to Vice President Mike Pence, despite his hospitalization. ‘The president is in charge,’ she said. 

Pence is at the Naval Observatory where he lives. He tested negative for COVID on Friday morning and Saturday morning.

For patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the FDA has given emergency-use authorization for Veklury, also known as remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc, which has been shown to shorten hospital stays. 

Conley said in a letter to Press Secretary McEnancy that Trump began taking the drug Friday night. 

‘This afternoon, in consultation with specialists from Walter Reed and Johns Hopkins University, I recommended movement of the President up to Walter Reed Military Medical Center for further monitoring,’ Conley wrote. 

‘This evening I am happy to report that the President is doing very well. 

‘He is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, but in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate remdesivir therapy. 

‘He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably.’ 

Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug first made to try and treat Ebola, has been used experimentally on COVID-19 patients since the outbreak’s early days.

It was given emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on May 1 but could only be used on severely ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients. 

On August 28, the FDA extended its authorization to all hospitalized adult and pediatric patients with suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, irrespective of their severity of disease.  

The update on Trump’s treatment came as the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in his administration became more clear. 

In the early hours of Saturday morning, it was confirmed that Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Politico said Stepien, 42, received his diagnosis Friday and is experiencing ‘mild flu-like symptoms’. 

He traveled to and from Cleveland for Tuesday’s presidential debate with the president. 

Just hours earlier, Republican Sens Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah confirmed they had tested positive. Both senators was in the Rose Garden for the announcement of Trump’s Supreme Court nomination on Saturday. 

Trump’s former adviser Kellyanne Conway also tested positive Friday night.  

It means at least seven people who were in attendance at the Saturday Rose Garden event nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court have now tested positive: President Trump, the first lady, a senior White House aide, two Republican senators who sit on the judiciary committee, Conway, and the head of the University of Notre Dame. 

There are still several people who have been in close contact with Trump recently who have not revealed whether they have since tested positive or not.  

As more positive tests were revealed, the White House’s testing infrastructure came under fire with claims that it is inconsistent and relying on rapid tests that produce mixed results.

Additionally, the White House does not appear to be making any changes to its current virus protocol, as it will not move to a new testing system. 

Three White House reporters also tested positive Friday as the White House National Security Council ordered all staff to begin wearing masks in White House common areas and to ‘avoid unnecessary visits’ to the West Wing, according to an internal email. 

Mask use on the White House grounds has mostly been lax, with Trump often having questioned and sometimes ridiculed their use despite medical experts’ insistence the practice saves lives. 

Many White House staffers only appeared publicly wearing masks for the first time Friday as they waited for Trump to Board Marine One.  

In a video message posted to Twitter as he was transported to hospital, the president thanked the American people for their support following his diagnosis.

‘I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support. I’m going to Walter Reed hospital, I think I’m doing well, but we’re going to make sure things work out,’ he said in the 18-second clip.

‘The First Lady is doing very well. So, thank you very much, I appreciate it. I will never forget it.’ 

On Friday evening, Eric Trump tweeted that his father ‘is a true warrior’ and asked Americans to ‘join me in praying for his recovery’. 

‘He will fight through this with the same strength and conviction that he uses to fight for America each and every day,’ Eric wrote. ‘I ask you to join me in praying for his recovery. I have never been more proud of someone and what they have had to endure.’ 

Trump’s daughter Ivanka also called him a ‘warrior’ saying he ‘will beat this’.  

‘I love you, Dad,’ she added.  

Trump, 74, and Melania, 50, announced they tested positive in the early hours of Friday morning and at the time were self-isolating at the White House. 

Melania, who tweeted that she has ‘mild symptoms’ has not been taken to hospital with the president and will remain quarantined in the White House. 

Earlier while still at the White House, Trump’s physician said he was treated with a single dose of Regenron’s experimental polyclonal antibody cocktail. He added that the President was ‘fatigued but in good spirits’. 

The next week is considered the critical phase in his illness. Dr David A. Nace, a geriatrics expert and director of medical affairs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the New York Times that Trump’s symptoms may be more severe because of his failure to wear a mask. 

Older men are also at greater risk of becoming seriously ill.  

Supporters of Trump gathered around the military hospital on Friday night as some held a prayer group for his recovery. 

Trump’s presidential suite in the hospital has its own ICU, secure conference room and kitchen. Doctors are vetted in advance in case the president needs specialty care and the White House physician has sleeping quarters. 

The White House Chief of Staff also has his own office space in the president’s area, which is controlled by the White House, not by the Department of Defense. 

Known as Ward 71, the Presidential Suite is one of six special patient rooms reserved for high-ranking military officers and members of the White House cabinet.

The suite is ‘specially outfitted with protective devices and communications gear used in support of the president,’ wrote Rear Admiral Connie Mariano, who served as a physician to both presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and was director of the White House Medical Unit. 

With a dining room lit by a crystal chandelier and, a desk a few steps from the hospital bed and rooms decked out with couches for receiving visitors as well as security technology, it’s equipped for Trump to continue to carry out his presidential duties.

As the outbreak in the White House intensified, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, 77, and his wife Jill have tested negative. The President’s 14-year-old son Barron, daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have also tested negative, as has Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. 

When news of Trump’s hospitalization broke, Biden stressed that the president’s illness ‘cannot be a partisan moment’.

‘It must be an American moment. We have to come together as a nation,’ he tweeted. 

Former President Barack Obama also wished Trump a speedy recovery on Friday night. 

‘It’s important … for all of us to remember that even when we’re in the midst of big political battles with issues that have a lot at stake, that we’re all Americans and we’re all human beings, and we want to make sure everybody is healthy,’ he said. 

‘Michelle and I are hopeful that they and others that have been affected by COVID-19 around the country are getting the care that they need, that they are going to be on the path to a speedy recovery.’ 

Obama was speaking at a fundraising event with Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who said she shared her deepest prayers for ‘the health & recovery of the president and the first lady’.

‘The threat of this virus is real for all of us. Let it be a reminder to all of us that we must remain vigilant and take care of ourselves and take care of each other,’ she added. 

Bill and Hillary Clinton were among the other Democrats to wish Trump and Melania well. 

The former president and his wife, Trump’s 2016 opponent in the presidential race, tweeted out separate but identical statements on Friday night, after Trump was airlifted to hospital.

‘We wish the President and First Lady a speedy recovery, and hope for the safety of the White House staff, the Secret Service, and others putting their lives on the line,’ their statements said. 

‘This pandemic has affected so many. We must continue to protect ourselves, our families, and communities,’ they added.

On Friday evening, Biden’s campaign confirmed that it was pulling all negative advertising about Trump from their rotation of paid media. 

Trump’s campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said that they would not be doing the same.

‘Joe Biden used his speech in MI today to attack the President repeatedly on Social Security, the economy & job creation. Now Biden wants credit for being magnanimous?’ he said. 

Earlier in the day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Biden said he and Jill were praying for the Trumps – and, in a break from past practice, wore a mask to speak. 

‘My wife Jill and I pray that they make a quick and full recovery,’ he said, at a campaign event with union workers, which had been moved outside and attendance limited. 

‘This is not a matter of politics. It is a bracing reminder to all of us that we take this virus seriously. It means wearing a mask in public and encouraging others to do so as well.

‘We as a nation need to be better in dealing with this pandemic.’  

He added: ‘For all those who are fighting this, including the First Family, my prayers are with you. My prayers are with those who died – 207,000 I think today.’ 

At the end of his speech, Biden said: ‘May God protect the First Family, and every family that is dealing with this virus.’ 

Trump and Melania announced they had tested positive hours after he returned from a campaign fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club where he is believed to have come into contact with at least 100 people. 

It raised $5million for his campaign, which has now canceled all future events in light of the president’s diagnosis. 

New Jersey contact tracers are struggling to work out the names of all of the people who were present at a fundraiser, however. 

So far, the names of those present are believed to have been logged by three bodies, namely The White House, the Republican National Committee and the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Yet there is no single complete list of those who were present at the event including those who worked there including golf club staff or outside vendors. 

Sources cited by The New York Times say the President was already lethargic on the way back from Thursday’s  New Jersey event, and that he fell asleep on Air Force One on Wednesday night when returning from a rally in Minnesota – something that is highly unusual for the energetic President, who ordinarily spends his time on the aircraft watching television and tweeting. 

The Minnesota rally was also only half as long as his other rallies. Air Force One is now being deep cleaned. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it was deemed safe for the president to attend Thursday’s fundraiser. 

‘It was deemed safe for the president to go. He socially distanced. It was an outdoor event and it was deemed safe by White House operations,’ she told reporters at the White House on Friday.

Trump is 74 years old and at 244lbs and 6ft 3, is technically obese which puts him at higher risk of serious complications from the virus.  

People who attended the fundraiser said he seemed healthy. He spoke to supporters for 15 minutes and then took questions for an hour. 

‘We said, “How is this guy doing it? Look at the stamina of this guy.” I can’t tell you how healthy he looked. I’m sure that this will come and go,’ comedian and radio host Joe Piscopo told North Jersey.com.  

John Sette, the former chair of the Morris County Republican Committee, told Politico: ‘First of all, he looked 100 percent normal. 

‘He spoke 100 percent normal. He spoke for about 15 minutes and he took questions for an hour.’ 

There are questions about when White House staff learned Hope Hicks – one of Trump’s most trusted aides – tested positive, when Trump learned about it and why, with that knowledge in mind, he still went to the fundraiser. 

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Friday told reporters that they discovered Hicks had tested positive on Thursday afternoon, just as the President was preparing to travel to the fundraiser at his golf club, at around 1pm. Bloomberg claims the President found out about Hicks’ diagnosis hours earlier. 

Meadows said that they ‘pulled people off’ Marine One who they thought had been in close contact with Hicks to try to limit the spread, but they still allowed the President to go despite the fact that he’d traveled with Hicks on Air Force One on Tuesday and Wednesday, and had spent much of last week working with her. 

Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA, said that it was unlikely Hicks was the source of the White House outbreak because Trump would not have started showing symptoms as soon as Thursday had she infected him on Wednesday. 

It’s more likely that they were both exposed by another source days earlier, he said. 

If Trump becomes seriously ill, there are constitutional procedures that would allow Vice President Mike Pence to assume power temporarily, just weeks before the November 3 election. 

But if Trump suffers mild or no symptoms, the president would be able to tout his recovery as evidence that the virus is a less grave threat than many believe.  

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday morning, Meadows said: ‘His first question to me was, “how is the economy doing? How are the stimulus talks going on Capitol Hill?’ 

‘The American people can rest assured that we have a president who is not only on the job but who will remain on the job. 

‘In terms of Hope Hicks, we discovered that right as the Marine One was taking off yesterday we actually pulled some of the people who had been travelling with her,’ Meadows added. 

Those people are understood to be Dan Scavino, Social Media Director, and Kayleigh McEnany, White House Press Secretary, both of whom have since tested negative. 

On Wednesday night, the President was on the plane with Hicks but she kept a safe distance from him and others when she started experiencing symptoms.  

She was quarantined away from others on the plane and her diagnosis was confirmed Thursday, according to an administration official.

Trump then continued with his schedule Thursday and traveled to and from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort to take part in two campaign events. 

He flew back to the White House on Thursday evening, when it was publicly confirmed Hicks had the virus. Hours later, Trump and Melania shared their own diagnoses on social media. 

First Lady Melania tweeted: ‘As too many Americans have done this year, @potus & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. 

‘We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements. 

‘Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together.’  

The White House had earlier distributed a schedule for Friday that showed he planned to go forward with a fundraiser at his Washington, D.C., hotel and a political rally in Sanford, Florida. These trips were later canceled.