Trump tweets in all caps from hospital about abortion, space and tax

President has been in hospital since Friday after contracting Covid

Matt Mathers
Monday 05 October 2020 14:54 BST
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President Donald Trump fired off a barrage of early morning tweets from hospital on Monday, after being criticised for taking part in a drive-by despite needing to quarantine. 

Mr Trump, 74, listed a series of issues he has been campaigning on throughout the election, including abortion rights, the military and space projects.

In what appeared to be a voter call to action, Mr Trump claimed that voting for him meant "tax cuts", "religious liberty" and "law and order".

The president has been at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland since Friday.

He was moved there having fallen ill after testing positive for coronavirus, which has claimed some 210,000 US lives and crippled the economy.

Speculation continues to surround how serious the president's condition is after his medical team denied he had received oxygen at a press conference on Saturday.

In a separate update on Sunday, the president's doctors said he had been treated with dexamethasone.

Dexamethasone is a type of steroid that is usually only used on the most sick coronavirus patients.  

Researchers announced in June that dexamethasone reduced the risk of death among ventilated Covid-19 patients by around 33 per cent.

A team of scientists working on the Recovery Trial at Oxford University found that it was also successful in treating patients receiving oxygen, reducing deaths by up to 20 per cent.

Despite this, the president's medical team on Sunday suggested that he could released as soon as Monday.

Later in the day, Mr Trump issued a video on social media in which he continued to insist that he was well and in good  spirits.

In the clip, he also promised to greet supporters who had been waiting outside the hospital and was later spotted outside in his motorcade.

Dr James P Phillips, a CNN media contributor and an attending physician at the Maryland hospital, attacked the president's political theatre as "insanity".

"That presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of Covid-19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures," Dr Phillips said in a tweet.

"The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play."

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