WASHINGTON | US President Donald Trump was working Wednesday afternoon from the Oval Office, six days after contracting COVID-19, raising questions about the risks of contagion.
The behavior of the US president, who left the hospital Monday evening, is being scrutinized with special attention as cases of COVID-19 in the White House multiply.
The President is kept informed of the discussions on the plan to help the economy as well as the advance of the hurricane Delta, said its spokesperson Brian Morgenstern.
When he returned to the White House, Mr. Trump, criticized since the start of the pandemic for his messy messages and his approximations, had already sparked controversy.
Immediately after getting off the helicopter, he climbed the steps to the balcony of his residence. There he had removed his mask and raised his thumbs, in a strange gesture of defiance.
“Don’t be afraid of COVID,” he tweeted from the hospital on Monday, sparking dismay in the medical community.
The United States has just passed the 210,000 death mark from COVID-19.
On average, over the past week, 700 people have died from the coronavirus every day in this country.
No more symptoms or fever
The US president has had no symptoms for 24 hours and no fever for 4 days, his doctor said on Wednesday.
Dr Sean Conley’s brief report begins with an unusual phrase: “The President this morning said, ‘I feel great!'”
“He has not had a fever for more than four days and no symptoms for more than 24 hours”, continues the doctor.
- Listen to international political columnist Loïc Tassé with Benoit Dutrizac on QUB Radio:
Confusion about his movements
Donald Trump did not go to the Oval Office on Tuesday, the day after his return from the hospital, assured a spokesperson for the White House, contradicting an adviser to the president.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
The behavior of the American president is scrutinized with particular attention at a time when the number of people working in the White House (including journalists) declared positive continues to grow.
“The president wanted to be in the Oval Office yesterday [mardi], but he didn’t go and worked from the residence, ”tweeted Ben Williamson, spokesperson for the president.
A few minutes earlier, his economic adviser Larry Kudlow had said on CNBC that Donald Trump had “appeared in the Oval Office yesterday [mardi] by taking maximum precautions regarding COVID-19 ”.
The White House said preparations were underway to allow the president to find the famous office in the coming days.
Shortly before his departure from Walter Reed’s military hospital on Monday, his doctors had stressed that he was “not yet completely out of the woods”.
They had specified that they would not be totally relieved for a week.
Trump calls Biden a ‘nutcase’
US President Donald Trump, lagging behind in the polls less than a month before the presidential election, on Wednesday called his Democratic opponent Joe Biden a “nut”.
“He’s been a nutcase for years and everyone knows it,” the US president tweeted.
“The media get stuck with him and just try to protect him,” he added. “Did you notice how all the negative things, like his very low IQ, are never mentioned again?” Fake News! ”
For several days, the tenant of the White House has multiplied angry tweets.
“The media Fake News […] only want to talk about COVID-19, “he thundered Tuesday in a message from the White House, which he found Monday evening after three days of hospitalization.
As the November 3 ballot approaches, the polls are every day more worrying for the former New York businessman, looking for a second term.
According to the latest CNN / SSRS poll released Tuesday morning, he is now 16 points behind (41% against 57% of voting intentions) compared to Joe Biden.
If we look at the map of key states likely to tip the election to one side or the other, the Democratic candidate’s lead is less clear, but it is real, and constant.