Trump Hospitalized to Receive COVID Treatment

Two senators and a handful of White House officials have also tested positive.

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Americans—at least those who aren’t night owls—awoke to the news Friday morning that President Donald Trump and his wife Melania had contracted COVID-19. Late Friday afternoon, news came that the president was headed to Walter Reed Hospital and would stay for a few days “out of an abundance of caution.”

Speculation centered around where Trump might have been exposed—he confirmed his and his wife’s positive tests after Bloomberg News reported Thursday night that White House aide Hope Hicks had tested positive Wednesday. There were also reports that Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins and Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, all of whom were at the White House when Trump introduced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick, had tested positive.

“President Trump remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement on Friday. “Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days.” Melania Trump is reportedly experiencing “mild symptoms” and will remain in quarantine.

“I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support,” the president said in a video posted on Twitter shortly before he left for Walter Reed. “I think I’m doing very well  but we’re going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will never forget it. Thank you.”

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  1. Mary Stine

    so here is my (possibly) Covid story (no tests were available in March in Texas to ordinary citizens who could not prove they had a.) recently travelled outside of the country and b.) had been in close contact with someone who had travelled outside the country who had been positively diagnosed.
    I had all the symptoms, except the dry cough, in what was then a weird order:
    first symptom, severe GI issues only, leading me to assume I had food poisoning. I took OTC medicine, drank a lot of fluids and ate almost nothing for a few days. On day 3 I started to feel nauseous, had a severe headache, accompanied by nasal congestion. I was beginning to feel really tired, so I spent as much time resting as possible. by day 5 I was having trouble breathing, the congestion was worse, so I took Sudafed PE, Mucinex and used my Albuterol inhaler every 4 hours. I was even more fatigued and then the fever and chills started. I had Advil which seemed to help for about 3 hours. The fever and chills lasted for two days. The nausea returned along with dizziness and what food I could eat tasted weird. I couldn't smell very well, which I attributed to
    the nasal congestion. I began to wonder if walking on the beach in the warm salt air would help my breathing, so I tried a short walk. At first breathing was difficult, but after 10 minutes, it began to get better. Unfortunately, the Gi symptoms returned so I tried taking an herbal formula I had taken for food poisoning, along with probiotics and digestive enzymes. The herbal formula was very effective at controlling the diarrhea, nausea, bloating and weird food tastes. I kept doing short walks on the beach in sunlight and breathing as deeply as possible. I still had to use my emergency inhaler that I normally only use in severe allergy season in the fall.
    The fever and chills never returned and the nasal congestion went away. However, the GI symptoms and difficulty breathing stayed with me for weeks. I wasn't totally exhausted, but it took weeks to have my normal energy back. My sense of smell and taste returned fully, thank goodness.
    Two months after this my neighbor told me that someone in our little hamlet had travelled out of the country and was diagnosed with Covid. That person chose to remain anonymous, possibly because they likely were at a group event I attended in March, along with several others.

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    Mike B

    As of Sunday afternoon this situation becomes more and more surreal. We can't believe anything out of the White House. They're talking about releasing him tomorrow when he was being given oxygen and experimental treatments on Friday, and while he's still receiving Remdesivir? Don't they know that this disease is notorious for a sudden, deep, and rapid deterioration 5 to 7 days in - that is, around mid-week this week?

    Unless, as is possible, even likely, he was actually diagnosed Wednesday or early Thursday, 12 to 36 hours before telling anyone and attending events, indoors and unmasked, in the meantime.

    I think we're being fed more happy talk, straight from the top, and his condition is actually much more serious than the WH line. Trump is so obsessed with appearing strong and invincible that he'd lie about his condition right up to the point he can't function at all anymore.
    Remember at his Tulsa rally he spent 20 minutes - 20 minutes! - going on and on and on about how he wasn't tired and unsteady after his West Point address and demonstrating how he could drink from a glass one-handed, flinging the glass aside contemptuously as though it proved him to be the most virile human being alive...

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      Emily

      So obsessed with appearing strong that he traps his secret service detail inside a closed vehicle with him so he can go wave at the maga nuts outside the hospital. His contempt for the health and well-being of everyone who isn’t him is just breathtaking!

      What insane, reckless, moronic, malicious thing will he think of next in his quest to prove his invincibility? Someone hide the red button, please!!

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        Mike B

        Good grief.

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  3. Jim Knight

    All this denigration going on. It’s my belief that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are very representative of the constituencies they represent. Biden is following all the rules as “science” articulates them, and so do 90% of the commenters on this site. Trump says virus be damned, I’m going to live my life, and those who support him feel similarly. Remember that several states did not do the widespread and nearly permanent lockdowns that have been done in states like NY and Michigan, and their numbers have been fine. Sweden’s numbers are now better than those of the U.S. as a whole, and famously they didn’t lockdown either. These are adults, living in a free country that attend Trump events and they’re entitled to do as they please with regard to the masking and social distancing question. If they engage in risky behavior, they have an obligation to then protect those around them who are more vulnerable than they might be.

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    1. Mary Stine

      Well said. Your last sentence should be shouted from the rooftops.

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  4. John Cheyney

    The one person I genuinely feel sorry for is the President’s physician. Normally this is easy. The answer is ‘I can’t tell you anything due to patient privacy.’ He has to balance that with the right of the people to know the status of the President.

    Plus, he has every journalist and armchair doctor parsing the difference between ‘day three’ and ‘72 hours’ and pretending they understand what he’s talking about.

    Although it may be awhile, I hope when this is over he can pour himself a good stiff drink and relax.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    On the theory that topical reading would help me get through my pandemic stir-craziness, I watched what turned out to be an excellent presentation from the Great Courses online series, "The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague," given by Prof. Dorsey Armstrong of Purdue. Link: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-black-death-the-worlds-most-devastating-plague.html

    Among her many fascinating tidbits was the observation that in the Middle Ages, people presumed that the Plague was a punishment inflicted upon them by God. That being so, the obvious — to them — remedy was for the apparently healthy among them to make pilgrimages together, en masse (with their rats & fleas), to the nearest available shrines and holy sites, to pray for divine forgiveness.

    This was more than a little counterproductive. As the rabbis could have told them: Man plans, God laughs.

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    1. Mary Stine

      I've read that the only group of people who consistently survived the Plaque were glove-makers. Glove-makers were also the only group of people consistently washing their hands with soap and lavender water. No one made the connection back then.

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  6. Tim Johnson

    Times is now reporting it was Meadows who gave the dire report following the doctors' sunny assessment:

    “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,” Mr. Meadows told reporters outside Walter Reed Medical Military Center, where the president was flown on Friday evening and will remain for at least a few days. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”

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    Pat Riot

    "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it is statistic." -- Stalin

    All of the people around Trump have been unable to fully grasp the abject evil they are up against. Trump has prioritized his own reelection--which is driven solely by his own financial and legal survival--over every single entity on Earth, including the lives of all Americans and that of those around him.

    They were all fooled for the same reason petty con men are successful: because most people are good. And they were all fooled because the United States had a 100 year long history of acting with a high degree of competence when it came to the critical safety of individuals.

    Because of this, all of the people around Trump assumed, lazily, that "everything was taken care of". That there were "people" behind the scenes making sure everything was safe. That at the root of it all there would be people doing the *right thing*.

    And they were all wrong.

    There's a common--and false--defense of Trump that is often repeated by his detractors: "Trump didn't know". Trump knows, and he doesn't care. It's hard to grasp this since most likely anybody reading this has never come across an individual like this in their own life--but that's precisely how somebody like Trump gets away with so much.

    What is unfolding now is this: there was strong evidence--and even a positive test--that showed that COVID was posing an immediate danger for the staff around Trump. Trump's only calculation was **the immediate ramifications to his campaign** and absolutely nothing else. Absolutely. Nothing. Else. His *own children* were placed in that debate hall, and they repeatedly refused to wear masks because they knew Trump wouldn't allow it. And Trump wouldn't allow it because he calculated that doing so would hurt his chances at reelection--not because "he didn't know" about the risks.

    At the moment our country is in danger because our president is in the hospital. But that danger will be prioritized below Trump's reelection, if it's considered at all: his physical condition is being managed just like all of his other messes, with deception, deflection, lies and chaos. For Trump and his staff, this is no different than "very fine people" and everything else.

    Trump's evil is now in full view of all Americans: Trump will prioritize his own whims and wishes over every one of our lives. It's still almost impossible to grasp for most people, but fortunately our country only needs a small percentage more to grasp it in order to avoid the destructive election unrest that this evil man is planning for November.

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      Pat Riot

      Exhibit Z-99 thousand: Trump has played the same games with his annual physical exam that he has with his taxes:

      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-remains-mum-questions-about-trump-s-annual-physical-n1213266

      Ergo he may have co-morbid conditions we don't know about that could be making the current situation much more serious.

      And they lied about Trump taking oxygen. Taking oxygen is normally no big deal so... why would they lie about that?

      Justice for the GOP party politicians and operatives who supported this monster would be Trump stubbornly holding on to the nomination and not letting the party replace him on the ticket when he is incapacitated and delirious, leading the entire GOP to a defeat of unimaginable proportions.

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  8. Laurie

    In the time of a pandemic shouldn't the President and Vice President not be in the same room together? They are never allowed on the same flight. Is that just a tradition or a statute? Pence has put himself at risk too, meeting with Barrett's family and the Trumps in the Oval Office right before the ceremony. Other occasions too.

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      Victor Clairmont

      Pence has tested negative no?

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      1. Jess

        He could be incubating the virus. He could become positive any time in the 14 days after exposure, although it’s most likely in 5-6 days.

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          Victor Clairmont

          True, it’s a wait and see for Pence.

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          1. Scott N.

            Pence really needs to stay healthy. This could be really bad if there’s vice presidential illness too, because it’s not at all clear the presidential succession law is constitutional since Pelosi is arguably not an officer, and the 25th amendment require a Vice President to initiate.

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    Victor Clairmont

    So, officially now the docs came out and said they made a mistake in saying 72hours etc. and should have said day one two and three.

    So....wonder if this will appease the unappeasable :

    https://mobile.twitter.com/JuddPDeere45/status/1312450223948525568

    Always wait for moreeeee infooo.

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      Emily

      That particular memo does nothing for me. It smacks of a presidential order to “fix it”, which has no relation whatsoever to actual fact.

      I actually do think it’s possible the doctor misspoke. On the one hand, I would expect a physician to be accustomed to being very precise, especially about the health of a president. On the other hand, he’s not accustomed to public speaking, so that might have rattled him a bit. But the memo means nothing at all, except that potus was upset.

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      Matmos

      My first instinct is to believe what doctors say but it is a challenge when the conflicting stories come out. Yesterday he had „very mild“ symptoms which today it turned out were „very concerning“. Makes it hard to really buy the „whoopsie, I as a doctor totally misspoke“ story- although it’s certainly possible it is true.

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        Pat Riot

        He's not a doctor per se but rather a man taking orders from Trump.

        Whether he's telling the truth or not remains to be seen.

        And *this* is the dangerous tragedy of the situation: that absolutely *nobody*, not even Trump's supporters, puts it past Trump to simply lie about the most basic facts of his own health.

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    3. Tim Johnson

      yeah, i mean, i could see anyone making this mistake, all ado about nothing.

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      Pat Riot

      It's worth noting that Hope Hicks did not volunteer her diagnosis, it was *leaked* and reported on by a White House reporter. They were trying to cover it up--while infecting everybody around them. Evil. Absolutely, positively, evil.

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    5. CW

      Video of Trump's osteopath shows he was looking down at his notes when he said 72 hours. He was reading "72 hours." Trump then bullied the doctor to say it was a mistake because anything else would prove Trump intentionally infected anyone he came in contact with and that is criminal. His supporters and donors who were exposed know the truth and are not buying it. They are L I V I D.

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        Victor Clairmont

        Ooo hadn’t heard that one.

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    SusanC

    Thanks for providing us with this informative update on the weekend!

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