For the first time since being tested positive for COVID-19, President Donald Trump released a video address to the American people on his Twitter account. In it, he explained his current health, saying he feels “much better now,” his decision to go to Walter Reed Medical Center, saying he refused to lock himself in the White House and hide, and the current state of First Lady Melania Trump, who he says is doing very well.
President Trump began by thanking the staff of Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, saying they very quickly improved his health. “I came here, wasn’t feeling so well, I feel much better now,” said President Trump. “We’re working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back, because we still have to Make America Great Again. ”
“I’ll be back, I think I’ll be back soon, and I look forward to finishing up the campaign,” the President went on. “This was something that happened, and it’s happened to millions of people all over the world and I’m fighting for them.”
President Trump then went on to credit the experimental therapeutics he is being treated with, comparing them to miracles “coming down from God.”
“So many things have happened, if you look at the therapeutics which I’m taking right now, some of them,” said President Trump. “They’re looking like, frankly they’re miracles if you want to know the truth. People criticize me when I say that, but we have things happening that look like they’re miracles, coming down from God.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020
“So I just wanted to tell you that I’m starting to feel good, I just want to be so thankful for all of the support I’ve seen, whether it’s on television or reading about it.”
“I most of all appreciate what’s been said by the American people, by almost a bipartisan consensus of American people, it’s a beautiful thing to see and I won’t forget it, I promise you that,” said the president. “I also want to thank the leaders of the world for their condolences.”
President Trump then explained why he went to Walter Reed Medical Center, saying he refused to be sequestered in the White House during a time of crisis. According to President Trump, he would have been forced to remain in the upstairs quarters of the White House, and would not even have been allowed to visit the Oval Office.
“I had no choice because I just didn’t want to stand at the White House, I was given that alternative. Stay at the White House, lock yourself in, don’t ever leave, don’t even go to the Oval Office, just stay upstairs and enjoy it. Don’t see people, don’t talk to people, and just be done with it,” said the president.
“And I can’t do that. I had to be out front and this is America, this is the United States, this is the greatest country in the world, this is the most powerful country in the world, I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs,” he explained. “We have to confront problems. As a leader you have to confront problems. There’s never been a great leader that would have done that.”
President Trump then added that First Lady Melania’s health is “doing very well” and then joked about the wide difference in age between President Trump, 74, and First Lady Trump, 50.
“Melania is really handling it very nicely, as you’ve probably read she’s slightly younger than me. Just a little tiny bit,” the President joked, before saying that her good health is something “That makes me very happy, and it makes the country very happy.”
“Again, over the next few days we’re going to probably know for sure, so I just want to thank everybody out there, specifically the United States, the outpouring of love has been incredible. I will never forget. Thank you very much.”
