President Trump tweeted a video update from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday night.
"I came here, wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now," he said. "We're working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again. We've done an awfully good job of that, but we still have steps to go and we have to finish that job. And I'll be back — I think I'll be back soon."
He added, as a White House official identified as chief of staff Mark Meadows alluded to earlier in the day, that the next 48 hours remain critical.
"You don't know, 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 — next couple of days," Trump said.
The president said that he chose to go to Walter Reed rather than be isolated in his room at the White House, without meeting with other people or using the Oval Office. "I was given that alternative," he said.
"I can't do that. I had to be out front. This is America. This is the United States. This is the greatest country in the world, this is the most powerful country in the world. I can't be locked up in a room upstairs," he said.
He added, "We have to confront problems."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020
Trump said that first lady Melania Trump is "doing very well." He made a reference to her age — "as you've probably read, she's slightly younger than me, just a little tiny bit" — and how younger people have generally fared better with the coronavirus than older people. Melania Trump is 50; Trump is 74.
"I think we're gonna have a very good result. Again, over the next few days, we're gonna probably know for sure," he said.
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