10/4/2020

CORONAVIRUS/SECRET SERVICE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Trump briefly left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda to wave to supporters from a motorcade, after releasing a video on Twitter thanking people who had gathered outside the facility…

Trump told advisers on Sunday [Oct. 4, 2020] that he was getting bored being in the hospital and was tiring of watching coverage of his hospitalization. The ride past supporters was so impromptu that officials in charge of assembling the White House press pool were not even told.

The decision by Trump, who announced on Friday that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus, to defy public health guidelines and leave quarantine to greet his supporters confounded medical experts. Several agents from the Secret Service, which has already suffered from coronavirus outbreaks in recent weeks while protecting Trump, were also in the SUV with the president.”

-Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Amy Goldstein, “Infectious Trump briefly leaves hospital to greet fans as confusion continues over his health,” washingtonpost.com, Oct. 4, 2020