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(CNN) – Strolling through the well-equipped presidential suite of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center between intravenous doses of remdesivir and hourly vital signs checks, President Donald Trump has told more than one supporter that he is desperate to get back into action.
He did so on Sunday. Just after 5 p.m. ET, a combination of boredom, agitation, and a longing for adulation – while convalescing from the coronavirus – brought the president into the back seat of a black Chevy Suburban, waving frantically as he crawled down Rockville Pike as two officers from the US Secret Service, dressed in scrubs, masks and eye protection, stared stoically ahead.
It was an image made up by the president himself and the very tight group of attendees who accompanied him to Walter Reed, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and social media adviser Dan Scavino, a person familiar with the matter said. They hoped the event could reassure Americans and assure them that Trump remains sane and in command after what they saw as exaggerated news coverage of his condition. And in particular, outsized forecasts that planned to transfer power to Vice President Mike Pence.
But his seconds-long parade only underscored the laid-back attitude toward the broadcast that appears to have landed Trump in the hospital to begin with. The space contained within the presidential limousine barely allowed a social distancing of the driver and the agent. While Trump wore a mask, his status as a hospital patient with Covid-19 prevented him from falling within anyone’s recommendation for a public appearance.
It was a shocking image for a president who now claims to “understand” the virus after contracting it.
“I really learned it by going to school. This is the real school, ”Trump said in a video posted seconds before appearing outside Walter Reed, his voice sounding a little hoarse but still enthusiastic. “This is not the school where we are going to read the book, and I understand it.”
The secret service expresses its concern
Subsequently, members of the Secret Service expressed growing concern over what many agency staff members have determined is utter disregard for their well-being in the midst of a deadly and highly contagious pandemic. Agents tested positive for the virus while traveling for the president’s political rallies, which he insisted on holding even against federal health guidelines. As employees are quarantined or isolated on site, others have been forced to work longer hours to fill the gap.
It is a situation that has provoked growing and more expressive concern.
“That should never have happened,” said a current Secret Service agent who works in the presidency. It was the first familiar detail after Trump’s passage, adding that the agents who participated in the trip would now have to self-quarantine.
“I mean, I wouldn’t want to be around them,” the agent said, expressing an opinion that several Secret Service people also expressed in the wake of Sunday’s appearance. “However, the frustration with the way we are treated when it comes to decisions about this disease goes back to before this. We are not disposable.
Another veteran Secret Service agent also expressed deep dismay at Walter Reed’s trip, although he was sympathetic to those around the president given the difficulty in turning down the commander-in-chief.
“You can’t say no,” said the agent.
Trump’s decision “was reckless”
While Secret Service agents have the power to say no to activities that could endanger a president, they cannot say no to situations that could endanger themselves.
A third agent told CNN: “It was just reckless.” But another tried to play down the concern.
“I have seen some of the news today and it is ridiculous to say that the president is trying to kill his detail,” another current agent said Sunday. “It’s not conventional, but we get the job done.”
In a statement, the White House insisted that steps were taken to protect others in the car with Trump.
“Adequate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those who support him, including personal protective equipment. The medical team authorized the move as safe, ”said Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere.
Medical experts and physicians said the episode seemed anything but safe.
“That presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, it is hermetically sealed against chemical attack,” tweeted Walter Reed affiliate Dr. James P. Phillips. «The risk of transmission of covid-19 indoors is as high as outside medical procedures. The irresponsibility is amazing. My thoughts are with the Secret Service that is obligated to provide the service.
CNN emergency physician and medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen tweeted that if Trump were her patient, “in unstable condition + contagious disease, and suddenly he left the hospital for a car ride that endangers himself. Himself and others: »I would call security to arrest him and then do a psychiatric evaluation to examine his decision-making ability.
A weekend at the hospital
By Sunday afternoon, the crowd of supporters gathered outside Walter Reed’s entrance had swelled to several dozen from just a handful of supporters when Trump first arrived on Friday night.
Inside, members of his team alerted Trump to the crowd, and he saw footage of the meeting on televisions hung in the suite of rooms where he is being treated.
Since arriving at the hospital, Trump has spent hours consuming television images of his health situation, a routine that is not entirely different from the way he spends his days in the White House, although now his regime is interrupted by the constant monitoring by doctors, doses of therapies given intravenously and, according to his doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, the “ups and downs” of the coronavirus that have included worrisome drops in his blood oxygen level.
Still, the president has tried to continue, particularly through his extensive phone calls with family and allies.
“It’s working the same way it works in the White House or the same way it works 24 hours a day,” his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Fox News.
Throughout the weekend, Trump pushed for some kind of public appearance demonstrating his continued health, though he encountered some resistance from his medical team, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His desire to be seen increased on Saturday afternoon and Sunday as he became frustrated by what he considered too fatalistic coverage of his condition. He was furious when a quote emerged from a person familiar with his health – later attributed to Meadows – suggesting that his vital signs were “worrisome” on Friday.
Instead of going out in public on Saturday, Trump recorded a four-minute video thanking his supporters and sat watching a series of photos at a round wooden table and in a conference room that appeared to review documents. The White House released another set of photos on Sunday, this time showing the president sitting in his wood-paneled conference room while on the phone with Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley.
In both the video and the photos, Trump was not wearing a mask; It was unclear what measures were taken to protect the photographers who captured the images.
Trump’s decision
Unlike the White House, where Trump is surrounded by a vast network of aides, he only has a minimal number of advisers in Walter Reed. Meadows spent the night in the hospital on Friday and Saturday. More recently, he was joined by Scavino, who wrote on Twitter that after a series of negative tests he planned to work from the hospital until Trump returned to the White House.
Scavino posted a set of photographs that appeared to have been taken from inside the president’s caravan on Sunday as they advanced past the group of supporters, waving Trump flags and yelling at opponents of the president at different times of the day. Dozens more of supporters passed by in their cars, waving American flags and producing a cacophony of support for the convalescent president as they honked loudly in support.
Around 5:15 p.m. ET, police officers began blocking the busy intersection in front of Walter Reed, where supporters were huddled on the sidewalk. Minutes later, the presidential motorcade began rolling north on Rockville Pike, slowing to a slow pace so the president could show his face.
Trump saluted and clenched his fist as supporters cheered loudly, most of them without masks.
Spinning across the road, as Trump passed more supporters and tents filled with cameras and television reporters, he showed a thumbs up.
Minutes later, he left. The White House alerted reporters that he was back in his Walter Reed suite.
– CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Kate Bennett, Jamie Gangel, Josh Campbell, and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
