President Trump late Saturday thanked his doctors and the world for its well-wishes as he remains hospitalized due to complications from the coronavirus, saying he plans to “be back soon” and wants to “finish up the campaign the way it was started.”
He said the outpouring of love from both parties and many countries has been “incredible.”
“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now, we’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make American great again. We’ve done an awfully good job of that but we still have steps to go and we have to finish that job,” he said in a four-minute video message posted to Twitter from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The president looks a bit fatigued in the video. He is seated at a desk in a white dress shirt and blue jacket without a tie.
His doctor, Sean P. Conley, said the president had made “substantial progress” since his diagnosis late Thursday and remained fever-free after a second dose of remdesivir, an antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences that’s been shown to help COVID-19 patients recover.
“He spent most of the afternoon conducting business, and has been up and moving about the medical suite without difficultly,” he said in a memo late Saturday. “While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic.”
Dr. Conley said the president will remain under observation Sunday in between doses of remdesivir, while the president continues his duties.
Mr. Trump was taken to Walter Reed early Friday evening, less than 24 hours after he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus. He is expected to spend several days at the military hospital.
In his Twitter message, the president said everyone will “be seeing what happens” over the next couple of days.
Mr. Trump highlighted the therapeutics he received to help him along. Besides remdesivir, he received an “antibody cocktail” from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
“Frankly, they’re miracles, if you want to know the truth,” Mr. Trump said. “Coming down from God.”
Mr. Trump characterized his hospital stay as a positive alternative to being “locked up” in the White House.
The president said that was an option, but he couldn’t stay cooped up.
“I had to be out front,” Mr. Trump said. “This is the most powerful country in the world, I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs and totally safe and just say, ’Whatever happens, happens.’”
“As a leader, you have to confront problems,” he said.
He said Mrs. Trump is also doing “very well” and highlighted the fact she is “slightly younger” than him, at 50 years old compared to his 74 years, which puts him in a vulnerable group when it comes to COVID-19.
“Melania is handling it, statistically, like it’s supposed to be handled,” he said. “That makes me very happy, and it makes the country very happy.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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