President Donald Trump, who has been hospitalized since Friday with COVID-19, left a Washington, D.C., medical center Sunday night in a motorcade to greet supporters, videos show.

In a video posted to his Twitter account at 5:16 p.m., Trump thanked his doctors and nurses at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and said he had “learned a lot” about COVID-19.

“I’m about to make a little surprise visit,” Trump said in the video, praising supporters who have been gathered outside Walter Reed hospital since his admission.

Moments later, NBC News and others posted videos showing a motorcade of black SUVs slowly driving past supporters waving flags and banners outside the hospital.

In an official statement, the White House confirmed that “President Trump took a short, last-minute motorcade ride to wave to his supporters outside and has now returned to the Presidential Suite inside Walter Reed,” ABC News reported.

While supporters cheered Trump’s impromptu trip, some others criticized it.


GOPUSA Editor’s Note: President Trump is criticized for anything that he does. Is it important for him to show that his health is improving or irresponsible as the left says? What do you think?

“That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack,” wrote Dr. James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, on Twitter. “The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures.”

“The irresponsibility is astounding,” Phillips said, saying his thoughts were with the Secret Service agents in the SUV with Trump

A spokesman for the Secret Service had no comment, ABC News reported on Twitter.

Doctors said earlier Sunday that Trump continues to improve and could be released as early as Monday, calling it a best-case scenario, McClatchy News previously reported.

“If he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House, where he can continue his treatment course,” said Dr. Brian Garibaldi, director of the biocontainment unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a member of the president’s medical team.

Trump’s blood oxygen level has dropped twice in two days, he has received supplemental oxygen at least once and he is being treated with steroids, his doctors said for the first time Sunday. In addition, Trump has received two experimental drug therapies during his illness, including one that takes five days to complete.

His second dose was Saturday, McClatchy News previously reported. He has not had a fever since Friday morning, his physician Dr. Sean Conley said.

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