President Leaves the Hospital, Walking Unassisted: Trump Update
Trump walked unassisted out of Walter Reed hospital, saying “thank you very much” upon his departure for the White House.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump left the hospital four days after his arrival for treatment for Covid-19. Minnesota officials are attempting to contact trace people who attended Trump campaign events there last week. Trump’s campaign said he plans to be ready to debate challenger Joe Biden.
Trump was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday after contracting the coronavirus, recording a fever and receiving supplemental oxygen. Doctors said the president has since been given three different types of therapeutic drugs -- including one typically used in more serious cases.
Key Developments:
Trump Leaves Hospital, Headed for White House (6:38 p.m.)
Trump walked unassisted out of Walter Reed hospital, saying “thank you very much” upon his departure for the White House.
Minnesota Officials Seek to Trace Attendees of Trump Rally
Officials in Minnesota seeking to conduct contact tracing of residents who attended Trump’s campaign events during a visit to the state last week said that neither the campaign nor federal officials have been in touch with them.
“We have not yet had any contact with the White House or RNC or others at this time, and have not received any lists,” said Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, referring to the Republican National Committee.
A rally at Duluth’s airport last Wednesday night occurred shortly before Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
Trump also held a fundraiser in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis. Allison Thrash, a county spokeswoman said officials there had not started contact tracing “because we have not been provided with a list of event attendees. We have not been contacted by either the White House or the CDC about this matter.”
“Given the extensive media coverage of the past several days, and the fact that MDH has already issued guidance telling people what they should do if they think they were exposed, it’s likely the attendees of the fundraising event have the information they need,” she added. “That said, if we were given a list of contacts to follow up with, we certainly would do so.”
Campaign Says Trump Intends to Debate; Biden Ready if ‘Safe’ (5:08 p.m.)
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the president “intends to be ready to debate,” without specifically mentioning the existing schedule for two more televised encounters with Biden, on Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. The first of those would be less than two weeks after Trump tested positive for Covid-19.
Biden said earlier Monday that he would meet Trump in a second debate “if the scientists say that it’s safe.”
Trump Aides Unsure They Can Keep Him Contained at White House (4:47 p.m.)
Trump aides hope to keep him at the White House residence, and away from the Oval Office, after he’s discharged from the hospital with Covid-19 later Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. They are uncertain how long the plan will last, they said. -- Jennifer Jacobs
Pastor Who Attended White House Event Tests Positive for Virus (3 p.m.)
A California pastor who attended the Rose Garden announcement for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has tested positive for Covid, becoming at least the 10th person at the White House event to test positive for the virus.
Pastor Greg Laurie, the lead pastor the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, said, “It really is a pandemic that has swept our nation and even the world,” Laurie said in a video he posted on Facebook. “If the president of the United States can get it, then obviously anybody can get it.” -- Ari Natter
Trump Fever Free; Another Remdesivir Dose Coming (3:16 p.m.)
Sean Conley, Trump’s physician, said at a briefing Monday that, “Over the past 24 hours the president has continued to improve he has met or exceeded all hospital discharge criteria. He will receive another dose of remdesivir here today and then we plan to get him home,” he said, referring to the antiviral drug.
“It’s been more than 72 hours since his last fever,” Conley said. “Though he may not entirely be out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all of our evaluations and most importantly his clinical status, support the president’s safe return home.” -- Emma Kinnery
Trump Says He’s Leaving Hospital Monday Evening (2:30 p.m.)
Trump said in a tweet that he will be leaving Walter Reed at 6:30 p.m. on Monday and is “feeling really good.”
He also urged people not to be “afraid” of Covid-19, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans. Trump said, “Don’t let it dominate your life.”
House Wants Briefing on Safeguarding Secret Service Personnel (1:21 p.m.)
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson called for a briefing from the Secret Service on the measures it’s taking to keep staff, including those on the president’s protective detail, safe from coronavirus threats.
Thompson made the request after video footage Sunday showed Trump waving at supporters from behind the closed windows of a black SUV, sparking questions over the potential exposure of Secret Service agents sharing his vehicle.
“The height of reckless disregard for others was the president’s ‘joyride’ yesterday where Secret Service agents were required to drive him around in a hermetically sealed vehicle,” Thompson said in a statement. “Exposing Secret Service personnel to the virus does not just put them at risk, it puts their families and the public at risk.”
New Jersey Meeting Resistance in Contact Tracing Trump Event (1 p.m.)
New Jersey health officials, trying to contact 206 people who attended Trump’s Bedminister fundraiser on Thursday, have met resistance from some of the 184 reached so far, Governor Phil Murphy said.
“The response and the level of cooperation has been a mixed bag,” Murphy, a first-term Democrat, said at a Trenton news conference. Some respondents, according Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, were “extremely positive,” expressing thanks and saying they’d pass word to others about possible exposure.
But Murphy said others weren’t so welcoming, with some quick to ask how New Jersey officials had gotten their names. “The Republican National Committee, for anyone watching, is where we got your name,” Murphy said. “We need even more than we got” from the RNC, he added.
Attendees had come from Texas, Arizona, Indiana, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere, state officials said. -- Elise Young
Two More White House Press Officials Test Positive (12:37 p.m.)
White House press aides Chad Gilmartin and Karoline Leavitt have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to people familiar with the matter. The duo add to a rapidly expanding group of people in Trump’s orbit who have contracted Covid-19.
The group also includes three reporters who cover the White House, the director of Oval Office operations, the chair of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign manager, along with at least three Republican senators.
White House Press Secretary Joins Ranks With Covid-19 (11:26 a.m.)
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a tweet that she tested positive for coronavirus Monday morning. She said she has had no symptoms and had tested negative consistently since Thursday, when she briefed the press.
McEnany also said that she “definitively” had no knowledge of Trump aide Hope Hicks’s infection with the coronavirus prior to holding the Thursday briefing.
First Lady Melania ‘Feeling Good,’ Resting at Home (10:45 a.m.)
First Lady Melania Trump, who unlike her husband wasn’t taken to the hospital after her diagnosis with Covid-19, tweeted Monday that she is “feeling good.”
“Thank you to medical staff & caretakers everywhere, & my continued prayers for those who are ill or have a family member impacted by the virus,” the first lady said. “I am feeling good & will continue to rest at home.”
Trump Departure From Hospital More Likely Tuesday (10:44 a.m.)
Trump’s condition improved over the weekend, and he is eager to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but his release will more likely come on Tuesday than Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.
The president was “demanding” to be able to return to the White House on Sunday, CNN reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump was concerned that being in the hospital made him appear weak, one of the people said.
Meadows Says Decision on Release Coming Later Monday (8:38 a.m.)
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that Trump’s condition continued to improve overnight, and that the president is ready to return to a normal work schedule.
“We’re still optimistic that, based on his unbelievable progress,” he will be released, Meadows said in an interview with Fox News, adding that “that decision won’t be made until later today.”
Meadows said “the doctors will have an evaluation sometime late morning.”
“Obviously this is an important day,” he said. “The president continues to improve and is ready to get back to a normal work schedule.”
New Jersey Governor Says Trump Fundraiser Bordered on Reckless (7:56 a.m.)
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy criticized Trump’s attendance on Thursday at a fundraiser at his Bedminster golf resort in the state, saying Trump ought to have canceled it.
“The thing that should have happened is that nobody should have come to New Jersey. That trip should have been canceled,” Murphy said on CBS’s “This Morning.” He said separately on CNN that “Bedminster is a chapter in a long book” about the consequences of flouting distancing and masking.
Trump attended the event despite knowing that his close aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. The event “borders on reckless,” Murphy said. “I hope it’s a lesson that now we’ve all learned,” he added.
The golf club staff is “all local,” Murphy said, and the state is working on contact tracing among those employees. The governor, a Democrat, also said, “We need more cooperation from the administration,” without specifying what’s needed. “It could be days” for attendees and club staff to test positive for the virus, and all should self-quarantine, Murphy said.
O’Brien Says President Always Had Control (7:25 a.m.)
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said the president has kept control of power throughout his illness and hospitalization. “Our adversaries knew it, our friends knew it,” O’Brien said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.
“China has a very serious health problem and they need to get it fixed immediately. They can’t keep unleashing these plagues on the world,” O’Brien also said.
Trump Ramps Up Twitter Posts, Urging Supporters to Vote (6:19 a.m. New York time)
The president took to his usual social-media platform Monday morning with a series of posts highlighting his campaign positions and the performance of the stock market during his tenure to urge supporters to vote.
Trump reiterated his pledge to cut taxes again and provide “better and cheaper health care,” while showcasing his support for things including gun-ownership rights and “religious liberty” and opposition to abortion and “the corrupt fake news media.”
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