White House acknowledges Trump’s condition had been worse than revealed

WASHINGTON: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows revealed that President Donald Trump's condition on Friday was far worse than officials had made public, saying doctors recommended the president go to the hospital after seeing he had a fever and his blood oxygen level dropped rapidly.

Meadows made the comments in an interview with Fox News broadcast Saturday night that capped two days of conflicting and opaque assessments of the 74-year-old president's health, reported Reuters.

"I can tell you this the biggest thing we see is with no fever now, and with him doing really well with his oxygen saturation levels," Meadows told Fox host Jeanine Pirro. “Yesterday morning we were really concerned by that. He had a fever, and his oxygen level had dropped rapidly. Yet in typical style, this president was up and walking around."

White House officials including Meadows said on Friday that Trump was experiencing "mild symptoms" and continuing to work. He told Fox News however, that doctors from Walter Reed and Johns Hopkins recommended that Trump go to the hospital.

"He's made unbelievable improvements from yesterday morning when I know a number of us, the doctor and I, were very concerned," Meadows said.

Earlier, Covid-hit Trump said from his hospital room that the next few days will be the "real test" of his treatment, after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about his condition.

In a four-minute video posted on Twitter on Saturday from his hospital suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a tired-looking Trump said he was feeling "much better."

"Over the next period of a few days, I guess that's the real test, so we'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days," Trump said into the camera, seated in front of an American flag and wearing a jacket and open-necked shirt.

Trump's illness has upended the campaign ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election and cast a spotlight on the president's handling of the pandemic. The Republican president is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls.

In an early morning tweet on Sunday, Trump said "Thank you so much!" - referring to clusters of supporters who gathered on Saturday night outside the Walter Reed hospital waving Trump 2020 flags.

Differing assessments of Trump's health from administration officials on Saturday left it unclear how ill the president had become since he tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday night.

A White House team of doctors said on Saturday morning Trump's condition was improving and that he was already talking about returning to the White House.