I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig;Philip Rucker; & Philip Rucker

Author:Carol Leonnig;Philip Rucker; & Philip Rucker [Leonnig, Carol & Rucker, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC
Published: 2021-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

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By that Sunday, his third day at Walter Reed, Trump had become bored. It wasn’t for lack of activity. He had frequent phone calls from well-wishers and the company of his medical and security teams and several aides, including Meadows and Dan Scavino. Trump was on a strict schedule, with his doctors and nurses giving him intravenous doses of remdesivir and popping in at least every two hours to check his oxygen level, blood pressure, and other vital signs. Outside the hospital, scores of supporters held up signs, waved flags, cheered his name, and honked car horns. More than anything, Trump wanted to project strength and vitality. He was annoyed with Meadows for telling reporters that his health readings were “very concerning,” worried the comment gave the impression he was feeble and bedridden. After he spoke on the phone with Rudy Giuliani, Jason Miller, and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the three said in media interviews that, yes, Trump was strong and ready to return to the campaign trail.

In conversations with advisers from his hospital suite, Trump floated a theatrical idea to symbolize his strength, according to Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times. When he eventually was filmed leaving the hospital, he could appear frail at first only to then surprise television viewers by ripping open his button-down dress shirt and revealing a Superman T-shirt underneath. Trump also wanted to appear hard at work and posed for photos in his hospital room signing blank pieces of paper. In deference to Trump’s psychological need to always appear in complete control, Vice President Pence and military officials were notably quiet during his hospital stay. Nobody gave any public assurances that a plan was in place to ensure continuity of government should the president become incapacitated. They knew that even entertaining that notion would infuriate Trump.

“You would want to hear the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the vice president say, ‘Look, we are going through a situation here. We have it well in hand. Make no mistake, our adversaries should not see this as an opportunity. We are fully prepared to execute all of our authorities,’ ” remarked David Lapan. But, he added, “the president doesn’t want to create an appearance that anybody is in charge except him.”

Around lunchtime on October 4, while plotting with Meadows and Scavino, Trump decided to go for a joy ride. His Secret Service detail leader was alerted that they had an “off-the-record” presidential movement in the works.

Trump teased his supporters that afternoon by sharing a video on social media hinting at his plans for an outing. After thanking the hospital staff, Trump said, “I also think we’re gonna pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street, and they’ve been out there for a long time, and they’ve got Trump flags, and they love our country.”

Just after 5:00, Trump delivered on his little surprise by riding in his motorcade past the clusters of supporters along Wisconsin Avenue outside Walter Reed.

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