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Trump says secret service was 'heavily protected' through 'joy ride' outside Walter Reed during Covid-19 treatment

POTUS said that by not going out to wave at his followers waiting outside, he would have disrespected them

President Donald Trump went out temporarily from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last weekend after he went there for treatment for Covid-19 – to wave at his supporters. The move, which was criticized as a "joy ride" by many, considered to have put the Secret Service agents accompanying the president in his airtight vehicle at the risk of getting infected. However, Trump, who made a dramatic return to the White House after spending three nights at the medical facility, on Friday, October 9, defended his decision during a video interview with Fox News – his first since testing positive for coronavirus. He said the security agents inside ‘The Beast’ were “heavily protected” and that he owed his fans “a little wave”. 

Speaking to Dr Marc Siegel, the 74-year-old Trump said: “I had tremendous numbers of people, I could hear them from the hospital.” The interview was taped earlier but aired on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Friday. 

“I was way up high in this fortified military hospital that’s built to the highest standard, and yet through these very powerful windows I could hear people screaming and shouting with love, with real love,” the poll-bound president added. 

Trump went to Walter Reed the night of October 1 after reports surfaced that he had a fever and was having difficulty breathing. The president denied them.

Secret Service agents had no problem, says Trump

On his going out to wave at his supporters, Trump said in the interview that the Secret Service agents had “no problem” with him going out temporarily. “After two days I said I want to go out and say hello to the people, and I went to Secret Service and I said – these are the people that are with me all the time – and they said “we have no problem, sir”,” he said. “I said I just want to take a drive-by them and just wave. And you saw what happened, it was a great display of love out there, I don't think there was one negative person,” he said, adding: “The people in [the car] were protected, they were very heavily protected. Because at that time I guess I would have been positive. But they were very very protected. And they've been with me for a long time, and they understand.”

The president said it was very important for him to show the supporters his affection since they were standing out for 24 hours a day and he would have been disrespectful towards them had he did not go out. “I thought it was very important to show my affection for them. They were standing out there 24 hours a day. I just thought I love the people that -- I love the people of this country. I thought it would have been very disrespectful if I was there for three, three and a half days, and these people are there late at night, early in the morning, and I didn't go out and at least give them a little wave,” Trump said, backing his venture out of the hospital despite being infected by the deadly virus. 

Earlier this week, medical experts expressed shock over the president’s decision to go out of the medical center to wave at supporters. Dr James Phillips, an attending doctor at Walter Reed, for instance, strongly condemned the president’s drive on October 4. 

Phillips, the chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University’s Emergency Medicine Division, said the nature of the president’s attack-proof vehicle made it even more dangerous for the Secret Service agents. 
 
In a couple of tweets, Phillips said: “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. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.” “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential “drive-by” just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

Phillips later removed his description as an attending physician at Walter Reed from his Twitter bio and his status with the Bethesda military facility still stands unclear, the Daily Mail report stated.