President Donald Trump left the Walter Reed hospital on Monday night and was taken by helicopter back to the White House, after being given a cocktail of drugs to treat COVID-19.
He walked out of the hospital at 6:40pm, giving the thumbs up to the camera, Daily Mail reports.
Asked how many people in the White House were now sick, and whether he himself was a super spreader, he simply replied: ‘Thank you very much.’ he climbed into his waiting SUV which drove him to Marine One, for the 15-minute helicopter ride home to the White House.
Before he departed, aides set up lights outside the hospital doors to set the scene for the president’s big moment, giving Trump the dramatic, ‘made-for-TV’ moments he loves.
Before he left, staffers and Secret Service agents came out of the hospital. Several wore prominent N95 masks and carried safety goggles. At one point, a pair of masked staffers walked through the pool and quipped: ‘We’ve been tested.’
Marine One lifted off at 6:45pm, and landed at 6:55pm on the South Lawn of the White House.
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Marine One’s crew will have to isolate for 14 days, and the helicopter will have to be deep cleaned.
Trump, 74, was admitted to Walter Reed on Friday amid reports he had trouble breathing and had a fever.
He has received care from the best doctors in the country, and has been driven around in an SUV to wave at fans who lined up outside to greet him – a move that outraged critics who said he put Secret Service agents’ lives at risk for a political stunt.
“Will be back on the Campaign Trail soon!!!’ he tweeted on Monday evening, shortly before departing.
‘The Fake News only shows the Fake Polls.”
Crowds of supporters held a vigil outside the hospital, and were rewarded with the drive-by.
People wore ‘Make America Great Again’ paraphernalia, waved campaign signs and hoisted Americans flags.
One woman waved a ‘we [heart] u Mr. Trump sign’ while another man waved a ‘We [heart] Trump’ sign.
On Monday, just four days after he tested positive with the deadly virus, he tweeted: ‘I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid.
“Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Shortly after his message, doctors appeared outside the hospital to say that while Trump was not ‘out of the woods’, they were satisfied for him to go home.
They refused to share details of his health, like when he last tested negative or even if he would be forced to quarantine when he got out, citing medical privacy laws as reasons not to share information like the results of a lung scan.
The doctors said Trump will receive his fourth remdesivir dose on Monday night before he leaves the hospital, and his fifth on Tuesday.
The president’s kidney and liver function are both good, they said. His temperature on Monday was 98.1F.
The doctors defended their treatment of him and of the decision to discharge him, saying he has some of the best care in the world at the White House.
“Every day a patient stays in the hospital unnecessarily is a risk to themselves. There’s nothing being done here that can’t be done safely at home,’ said Dr Sean Conley, presidential physician. That’s why we all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard.
“We all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard, because we’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that received the therapies he has so early in the course.”
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