Minutes after teasing the action in a Twitter video, President Trump Sunday evening left Walter Reed Medical Center for a quick motorcade spin outside to greet supporters who have been rallying there as he battles COVID-19.
Trump departed the hospital in an armored SUV and remained in the vehicle as he drove past a flag-waving and cheering crowd outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
President Trump On Twitter
The one-minute video from the president had more than 1.5 million views within minutes. The president was back in his suite at the medical center shortly after the tour.
“Getting great reports from the doctors. This is a great hospital here, Walter Reed. The work they do is just absolutely amazing and I want to thank them all, the nurses, the doctors, everybody here. I’ve also gotten to meet some of the soldiers and the first responders and what a group.” Trump said in the video.
“I also think we are going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the streets and they’ve been out there for a long time and they’ve got Trump flags. They love our country, so I’m not telling anybody but you but I’m about to make a little surprise visit. So perhaps I’ll get there before you get to see me, but I just when I look at the enthusiasm, and we have enthusiasm that like probably nobody has ever had. People that love the job we’re doing, we have more enthusiasm than maybe anybody.”
“So it’s been an interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is a real school. This isn’t a ‘let’s read the book’ school. And I get it and I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing. I’m going to be letting you know about it. But in the meantime we love the U.S.A. and we love what’s happening. Thank you.”
Trump departed the hospital in an armored SUV and remained in the vehicle as he drove past a flag-waving and cheering crowd outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Trump did not alert the pool of reporters who are supposed to travel with him before leaving the hospital.
The Secret Service Expresses Concern
But his seconds-long parade only underscored the relaxed attitude toward transmission that appear to have landed Trump in the hospital to begin with. The contained space inside the presidential limousine hardly allowed for social distancing from the driver and agent. While Trump wore a mask, his status as a Covid-positive hospital patient precluded him from falling within anyone’s recommendations for a public appearance.
It was a striking image for a President who claims to now “understand” the virus after contracting it.
“I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school,” Trump said in a video posted seconds before he appeared outside Walter Reed, his voice sounding slightly raspy but still enthusiastic. “This isn’t the let’s read the book school and I get it.”
Afterward, members of the Secret Service voiced escalating concern at what many of the agency’s personnel have determined is total disregard for their well-being amid a deadly and highly contagious pandemic.
Agents have tested positive for the virus while traveling for the President’s political rallies, which he insisted on maintaining even against federal health guidelines. As employees self-quarantine or isolate in place, others have been forced to work longer hours to fill the void.
It’s a situation that has prompted growing and more vocal concern.
“That should never have happened,” one current Secret Service agent who works on the presidential and first family detail said after Trump’s drive-by, adding that those agents who went along for the ride would now be required to quarantine.
“I mean, I wouldn’t want to be around them,” the agent said, expressing a view that multiple people at the Secret Service also voiced in the wake of Sunday’s appearance. “The frustration with how we’re treated when it comes to decisions on this illness goes back before this though. We’re not disposable.”
Another veteran Secret Service agent also expressed deep dismay at the Walter Reed ride, though was sympathetic for those around the President given the difficulty in pushing back on the commander-in-chief.
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