Donald Trump was administered supplemental oxygen prior to being transferred to Walter Reed medical center for treatment for COVID-19, according to the Associated Press.
The report came after the president’s medical team gave a press conference on Saturday saying Trump was “doing very well.” According to the AP, the oxygen was administered at the White House, after the president’s diagnosis and before he was transported to Walter Reed.
Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Conley made no mention of the treatment at the press conference, instead saying Trump is not currently on oxygen and has been “fever-free for over 24 hours.” Another member of Trump’s medical team, Dr. Sean Dooley, said the president was in “exceptionally good spirits” and was having no difficulty breathing or walking around.
The president tweeted thanks for the Walter Reed staff on Saturday, saying he is “feeling well.”
“Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING,” he wrote. “Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE.”
An anonymous “source” told pool reporters after the press conference, however, that the president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were “very concerning,” adding that, “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi later noted on Twitter that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was caught on camera asking to speak to reporters off the record “immediately after the press conference ended and before the anonymous statement was sent out.”
Trump traveled to Walter Reed by helicopter late afternoon on Friday, less than a day after revealing his COVID-19 diagnosis on Twitter. In a brief video, filmed at some point Friday afternoon but released shortly after he departed the White House Trump said, “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.”
The timeline of the president’s diagnosis was called into question on Saturday when Conley said in his prepared remarks that Trump was “just 72 hours into the diagnosis,” possibly suggesting that the president received his test result earlier than publicly known. White House officials later told reporters that Conley misspoke.
In a statement Friday night, Conley said Trump received the antiviral Remdesivir, following on the “single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail” he received at the White House.
Since Trump first disclosed he and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19 late on Thursday, at least three White House reporters have also tested positive for COVID-19, as well as a number of Republican politicians who attended an event at the White House last weekend, while Vice President Mike Pence and former Vice President Joe Biden — who was near Trump on Tuesday during the first presidential debate — have tested negative.