Trump feels very well, will remain hospitalised: White House official

Trump will receive a national security briefing remotely later on Sunday, says adviser Robert O’Brien

WASHINGTON:

US President Donald Trump feels very well and wants to get back to work at the White House but will remain hospitalised, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.

“I spoke with the Chief of Staff (Mark Meadows) this morning and the good news is the president feels very well and he actually wants to get back home to the White House and get back to work, but I think he’s going to stay at Walter Reed for at least another period of time,” O’Brien said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

O’Brien, who himself had coronavirus over the summer, said the seventh and eighth days “are the critical days so I think the doctors want to make sure that they’re there for the president.”

O’Brien said Trump will receive a national security briefing remotely later on Sunday from himself, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley.

 

Asked if there had been discussions on transfer of power should Trump become incapacitated, O’Brien said, “No, that’s not something that’s on the table at this point.” He said he would not address hypotheticals but, “We have plans for everything.”

Trump was moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington on Friday just hours after his diagnosis, an extraordinary development that upended the US presidential race a month before the November 3 election.

White House doctor Sean P. Conley told reporters outside the hospital on Saturday that Trump had not experienced difficulty breathing, and had not been given supplemental oxygen.

Trump announced on Twitter early on Friday that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had contracted the virus.

He is at high risk because of his age and weight. He has remained in apparent good health during his time in office but is not known to exercise regularly or to follow a healthy diet.

A number of other prominent Republicans also tested positive on Friday, including former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and Republican Senators Mike Lee and Thom Tillis.