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Doctors will decide later Monday on whether to discharge President Donald Trump from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Monday morning.
“That determination has not been made yet. Obviously, he continued to improve overnight and his health continues to improve,” Meadows said on “Fox & Friends” from the center in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington.
“The doctors will actually have an evaluation sometime late morning and then the president, in consultation with the doctors, will make a decision on whether to discharge him later today. We’re still optimistic that based on his unbelievable progress and how strong he’s been in terms of his fight against this COVID-19 disease that he will be released, but that decision will not be made until later today.”
Trump earlier Monday wrote over a dozen times on Twitter urging people to vote as he highlighted what he sees as major accomplishments of his administration.
“Virginia Voters! Your Governor wants to obliterate your Second Amendment. I have stopped him. I am the only thing between you and your Second Amendment. Working hard in Virginia. It’s IN PLAY. Better Vote for your favorite President, or wave goodbye to low taxes and gun rights!” the Republican wrote.
Trump then sent 15 more tweets, such as “SAVE OUR SECOND AMENDMENT. VOTE!” and “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH (BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME). VOTE!”
The president said voting for him would also protect babies’ lives, bring about another tax cut, and support religious liberty.
Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was moved to Walter Reed on Friday. A doctor said Sunday that a discharge is possible as soon as Monday.
“Today, he feels well, he’s been up and around. Our plan for today is to have him to eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile,” Dr. Brian Garibaldi, who is helping care for Trump, told reporters at a press conference outside Walter Reed.
“If he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.”
Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, echoed the view.
“The fact of the matter is, is that he’s doing really well. He is responding,” Conley said. “As the team said, if everything continues to go well, we’re going to start discharge planning back to the White House.”
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a family and emergency medicine doctor, said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that she would prefer to see Trump remain in the hospital but noted the president is no longer receiving supplemental oxygen and seems to be reacting well to the antiviral remdesivir treatment course he is on.
“It might be okay for him to be discharged to the White House, but with continued post monitoring, meaning I want his oxygen level to be monitored, his heart rate, his blood pressure, his temperature—make sure he’s doing well,” Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor, added.
Trump said in a video released via Twitter Sunday night: “I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the ‘let’s read the book’ school. And I get it. And I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing. And I’m going to be letting you know about it.”
But former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that the experience “is not likely to change him.”
“You’re never going to keep this president locked in his basement. That was never going to happen,” Mulvaney said. “Yes, you could have put him a bubble inside the West Wing, yes you could have restricted him to where no one would actually come into contact with him, but that’s not this president.”
