'I will be back soon': US President Donald tweets video from hospital
US President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted a video and said that he is feeling "much better" and hoped to be back soon to complete this re-election campaign. However, Trump also said that the "real test" lies ahead, over the coming days.
The president sought to portray his hospitalization as a courageous decision. “I had no choice because I just didn’t want to stay in the White House,” Trump said. “I was given that alternative. Stay in 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."
“I can’t do that, I had to be out front,” he added. “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.”
With the president in hospital, for now, his campaign on Saturday launched “Operation MAGA (short for Make American Great Again, the campaign slogan)”, a plan to carrying on without him. Vice-President Mike Pence will take the lead in in-person election events, but only after October 7, when he debates Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival.
“Operation MAGA will fire up the entire MAGA universe to keep President Trump’s campaign at full speed until our Commander-in-Chief returns to the campaign trail,” said Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager, said in a statement. Stepien has also tested positive and is working remotely.
On Friday, the president was put on supplemental oxygen after his oxygen levels dropped, which is partly prompted the decision to airlift him to the Walter Reed Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, in the adjoining state of Maryland.
(With inputs from agencies)
